Cave v. Conrad

746 N.E.2d 1179, 140 Ohio App. 3d 202
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 2, 2000
DocketCase No. 00CA645.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 746 N.E.2d 1179 (Cave v. Conrad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cave v. Conrad, 746 N.E.2d 1179, 140 Ohio App. 3d 202 (Ohio Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Harsha, Judge.

The Administrator of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (“BWC”) appeals from a judgment entered by the Pike County Court of Common Pleas ordering the BWC to reimburse appellee Yulonda Cave for the videography costs of the depositions of her expert witnesses. The BWC assigns the following error:

“The trial court erred in taxing the videographer charges for the videotape depositions of two physicians, who testified on behalf of the plaintiff-claimant, to the defendant, Administrator of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation under R.C. 4123.512(F).”

For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

*204 Following the denial of her workers’ compensation claim by the Industrial Commission, Cave filed a notice of appeal with the Pike County Court of Common Pleas. At the subsequent jury trial, Cave presented the deposition testimony of Drs. Michael Kelly and Thomas Hawk via video. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Cave, and a judgment was entered reflecting this finding. No appeal was taken from the jury’s verdict.

The trial court also determined that Cave was entitled to recover certain costs from the BWC but did not determine whether Cave could recover the videogra-phy costs associated with the depositions of the physicians. Thereafter, Cave filed a motion requesting $335.50 for the videotaping of Dr. Kelly’s deposition and $255 for the videotaping of Dr. Hawk’s deposition. The BWC contested this motion at a hearing. The trial court ruled that the videotape deposition costs were to be paid by the BWC pursuant to R.C. 4123.512(F). The BWC filed a timely appeal from this judgment.

R.C. 4123.512 contains two provisions under which a claimant may recover costs of litigation. R.C. 4123.512(D) provides:

“* * * The bureau of workers’ compensation shall pay the cost of the stenographic deposition filed in court and of copies of the stenographic deposition for each party from the surplus fund and charge the costs thereof against the unsuccessful party if the claimant’s right to participate or continue to participate is finally sustained or established in the appeal. * * *”

The Ohio Supreme Court interpreted this “cost of the deposition” provision as requiring the BWC to pay the stenographic and reproduction costs of depositions. If the claimant is unsuccessful, the bureau absorbs the costs from its “surplus fund!’ without charging them against the employee or employer. Only if the claimant successfully establishes a right to participate in the workers’ compensation system may the bureau charge the costs against the unsuccessful employer. Akers v. Serv-A-Portion (1987), 31 Ohio St.3d 78, 31 OBR 190, 508 N.E.2d 964, syllabus. 2 Under this section, a claimant is never ultimately responsible for deposition costs, regardless of the outcome of the claim.

R.C. 4123.512(F) allows for the taxing of other costs of litigation only if a claimant is successful in establishing his or her right to participate in the workers’ compensation system. R.C. 4123.512(F) states:

“The cost of any legal proceedings authorized by this section, including an attorney’s fee to the claimant’s attorney to be fixed by the trial judge, based upon the effort expended, in the event the claimant’s right to participate or to continue *205 to participate in the fund is established upon the final determination of an appeal, shall be taxed against the employer or the commission if the commission or the administrator rather than the employer contested the right of the claimant to participate in the fund. * * *”

The BWC argues that R.C. 4128.512(D) specifically provides that stenographic deposition costs must be paid by the BWC and, based on the plain language of this statute, the legislature did not intend for the BWC to be responsible for the duplicative cost of videotaping the depositions. Further, the BWC argues that it is a well-established rule of statutory construction that specific provisions govern over general provisions. R.C. 1.51. Therefore, the provision addressing “cost of the deposition” should govern over that applying the more general “cost of the legal proceedings.”

The BWC relies primarily on State ex rel. Williams v. Colasurd (1995), 71 Ohio St.3d 642, 646 N.E.2d 830, which interpreted R.C. 4123.519(C), a statute virtually identical to current R.C. 4123.512(D), as not authorizing payment for both the stenographic and videographic costs of depositions. The BWC also directs us to decisions of other appellate courts that have determined that the costs of videotaping a deposition is not recoverable to a successful claimant. See, e.g., Breidenbach v. Conrad (1997), 122 Ohio App.3d 640, 702 N.E.2d 509; George v. Ohio Bur. of Workers’ Comp. (1997), 120 Ohio App.3d 106, 696 N.E.2d 1101; Elford v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc. (1995), 107 Ohio App.3d 383, 668 N.E.2d 994.

In Colasurd, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that “costs” are not synonymous with “expenses” unless expressly made so by statute. 71 Ohio St.3d at 643, 646 N.E.2d at 831-832. The court found that the “cost of the deposition” provision allowed for only stenography costs and not for other deposition-related expenses. Id. at 643-644, 646 N.E.2d at 831-833.

However, the BWC’s reliance on Colasurd is misplaced. In Colasurd, the claimant was unsuccessful and the court looked only to a “cost of the deposition” provision, similar to R.C. 4123.512(D), to determine whether the claimant could recover the videography costs. Here, Cave was successful and is attempting to collect the videography costs under the “cost of the legal proceedings” provision found in R.C. 4123.512(F). Therefore, Colasurd is not dispositive of this issue.

The BWC also directs us to decisions by other appellate courts that have held that subsection (D) applies specifically to deposition costs and (F) applies to the more general cost of the legal proceedings. Thus, it contends that videography costs arising from the depositions could be recoverable only if allowed under (D). See, e.g., George, supra. We reject this argument. While we agree with the principle that specific provisions control over general provisions, *206 that principle is inapplicable here. This argument fails to take into account the fact that subsection (D) allows recovery for deposition costs to any claimant whereas subsection (F) allows recovery of costs only if a claimant is successful.

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Related

Cave v. Conrad
2002 Ohio 793 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2002)

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Bluebook (online)
746 N.E.2d 1179, 140 Ohio App. 3d 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cave-v-conrad-ohioctapp-2000.