Commerce Oil Refining Corp. v. Miner

198 F. Supp. 895, 5 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 842, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5799
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedSeptember 29, 1961
DocketCiv. A. No. 2113
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 198 F. Supp. 895 (Commerce Oil Refining Corp. v. Miner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commerce Oil Refining Corp. v. Miner, 198 F. Supp. 895, 5 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 842, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5799 (D.R.I. 1961).

Opinion

DAY, District Judge.

This matter is now before me upon the defendants’ motion under Rule 54(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. to review the taxation of costs in favor of the plaintiff. When this case was reached for trial the plaintiff’s complaint was dismissed with prejudice and the trial proceeded upon the merits of the defendants’ counterclaim wherein they sought injunctive relief. After a lengthy trial, judgment was entered by this Court in favor of the defendants on said counterclaim. Plaintiff claimed an appeal from this judgment and thereafter a final judgment was entered on said appeal in favor of the plaintiff, vacating the judgment of this Court and dismissing said counterclaim. Subsequently, the plaintiff submitted a bill of costs amounting to $32,444.01 which was allowed by the Clerk of this Court, as of course, in accordance with the terms of said rule.

Title 28 U.S.C.A. § 1920 provides as follows:

“A judge or clerk of any court of the United States may tax as costs the following:
“(1) Fees of the clerk and marshal.
“(2) Fees of the court reporter for all or any part of the stenographic transcript necessarily obtained for use in the case.
“(3) Fees and disbursements for printing and witnesses.
“(4) Fees for exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for use in the case.
“(5) Docket fees under section 1923 of this title.
“A bill of costs shall be filed in the case and, upon allowance, included in the judgment or decree.”

The bill of costs as filed by the plaintiff and taxed is as follows:

“Fees of clerk $ 20.00 Fees of marshal 89.62 Fees of Court Reporter for all or any part of the stenographic transcript necessarily obtained for use in the case 7,496.45 Fees and disbursements for printing 4,566.63 Fees for witnesses 19,130.29 Fees for exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for use in the case 343.17 Docket fee under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1923 20.00 Costs incident to taking depositions 777.85 $ 32,444.61”

After oral arguments upon said motion, the parties submitted extensive briefs in support of their respective contentions concerning each of said items. In my opinion said costs should be revised and allowed only to the extent and in the amounts hereinafter set forth.

Fees of Clerk, Fees of Marshal, Costs Incident to Taking of Depositions

Examination of the record discloses that the costs claimed for the above items were, with the exception of the sum of $5 paid to the clerk as the filing fee on its claim of an appeal from the judgment of this Court in favor of the defendants on their counterclaim, incurred by the plaintiff in connection with the plaintiff’s original complaint, which was dismissed with prejudice. Under the circumstances, the plaintiff was not the prevailing party as to said complaint and is not entitled to costs incurred in connection therewith.

[897]*897Fees of the Court Reporter for All or any Part of the Transcript Necessarily Obtained for Use in the Case

The trial of this case required forty-two days. Counsel for the parties, ordered a daily transcript of the testimony. In fact several copies were furnished to them at their request, and one copy was xurnished to the Court. Although it was not requested by me, it proved helpful during the protracted trial. It is the general rule that where a trial is long and involves complex issues and a daily transcript is obtained, the prevailing party may be allowed the cost of one copy thereof. Additional copies are to be regarded as having been obtained for the convenience of counsel. Kemart Corporation v. Printing Arts Research Laboratories, Inc., 9 Cir., 1956, 232 F.2d 897, 57 A.L.R.2d 1234; Perlman v. Feldmann, D.C.Conn.1953, 116 F.Supp. 102. The cost of a single copy of the transcript appears to have been $1,767.90. This item of the plaintiff’s bill of costs is allowed in that amount.

Fees and Disbursements for Printing

According to the plaintiff, this item amounting to $4,566.63 represents the cost of printing the briefs which were filed with me at the conclusion of the trial. There is no rule of this Court and there was no order entered herein requiring that the briefs submitted by the parties should be printed. Plaintiff elected to file printed rather than typewritten briefs, which are customarily filed in this Court. Plaintiff cites and relies upon the case of Kenny v. United States, D.C.N0.J.1954, 118 F. Supp. 907, as authority for the allowance of the expenses of printing briefs as an item of taxable costs. A careful reading of the opinion fails to disclose any dis-cute between the parties as to the propriety of the allowance of said expenses. It may well be that there was a local rule or order entered requiring that the briefs be printed. In any event, the printing of the plaintiff’s briefs was not necessary in this case and this item in its bill of costs is disallowed.

Fees for Witnesses

This item, as claimed in plaintiff’s bill of costs, amounts to $19,130.29. Annexed to its bill of costs is a list of its witnesses, the number of days each is claimed to have been in attendance at court, the mileage for each, the subsistence paid to each, etc. In addition, plaintiff in its bill included expert witness fees of varying amounts per day for eleven of its witnesses.

Title 28 U.S.C.A. § 1821 provides that any witness attending in a court of the United States shall receive $4 for each day’s attendance, and for the time necessarily occupied in going to and returning from the' same, and 8 cents per mile for going from and returning to his place of residence. And in addition, with certain exceptions not pertinent here, such witnesses who attend at points so far removed from their respective residences as to prohibit return thereto from day to day are entitled to an allowance of $8 per day for subsistence, including the time necessarily occupied in going to and returning from the place of attendance.

Subsequent to the hearing on the instant motion, counsel for the parties at my suggestion filed with me a stipulation as to the number of days each of the witnesses listed on said schedule, annexed to plaintiff’s bill of costs, actually testified in court. Since there has been no showing that any of said witnesses necessarily attended in court longer than the number of days he or she testified, the allowance of witness fees for a particular witness should and will be limited to the number of days he or she testified and the days, if any, required for the travel of said witness to and from this Court. The allowance for the subsistence of a particular witness will be similarly limited.

It is well settled that the fees of expert witnesses in excess of the witness fees provided in Title 28 U.S.C.A. § 1821 [898]*898are not allowable as costs in the federal courts. Henkel v. Chicago, etc., Ry., 1932, 284 U.S. 444, 52 S.Ct. 223, 76 L.Ed. 386; Cheatham Electric Switching Device Co. v. Transit Development Co., 2 Cir., 1919, 261 F.

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Bluebook (online)
198 F. Supp. 895, 5 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 842, 1961 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commerce-oil-refining-corp-v-miner-rid-1961.