People v. Nicholls

359 N.E.2d 1095, 45 Ill. App. 3d 312, 4 Ill. Dec. 143, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 2079
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 27, 1977
Docket73-47
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 359 N.E.2d 1095 (People v. Nicholls) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Nicholls, 359 N.E.2d 1095, 45 Ill. App. 3d 312, 4 Ill. Dec. 143, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 2079 (Ill. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinions

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION ON PETITION FOR ATTORNEYS’ FEES

Mr. JUSTICE JONES

delivered the opinion of the court:

This supplemental opinion is responsive to a motion filed by the People to assess costs of appeal and fees against defendant. A similar motion has been filed in 27 other cases heard on appeal in this court and all motions have been consolidated for hearing and disposition. In this and other cases objections to the assessment of costs and fees have been filed on behalf of all indigent defendants and briefs have been filed by the parties on both sides.

The People contend that the statutes authorize the assessment and collection of costs of appeal and fees in the appellate court and that recourse may be had for satisfaction of costs of appeal from any bail money posted by a defendant with the appellate court clerk.

The position advanced on behalf of the indigent defendants is that the statutes do not authorize the appellate court to assess costs of an appeal and fees against a defendant and, alternatively, that in any event the appellate court is without authority to assess costs or fees against a defendant in a criminal case after the mandate has been issued. The defendants who are indigent further contend that because of their indigency assessment of costs and fees against them is never proper.

Although there is no single comprehensive statute dealing with the assessment and collection of costs and fees in the appellate court, there is, nevertheless, a comprehensive scheme which emerges upon consideration of the scattered, though applicable, statutes, rules and interpretative cases.

The assessment or taxation of costs is the process of ascertaining and charging up the amount of costs to which a party is legally entitled or which are legally chargeable. The matter of assessing or taxing costs is governed by statute since no costs were taxable at the common law. (Meyer v. Marshall (1976), 62 Ill. 2d 435, 343 N.E.2d 479; People ex rel. Stuckart v. Campbell (1917), 204 Ill. App. 226.) The taxation or assessment of costs is a ministerial function of the clerk of the court who may only tax such costs as the statute may provide or what within its discretionary power the court may direct. (Rimmer v. O’Brien-Green Co. (1896), 64 Ill. App. 104; Schmidt v. Johnson (1922), 224 Ill. App. 291.) Assessment by the court of costs or fees not authorized by statute is an abuse of discretion. People v. Parks (1920), 216 Ill. App. 529.

Initially, we note that section 25 of “An Act to revise the law in relation to costs” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 33, par. 25) provides:

“The clerk of any court in this state is hereby authorized and required to tax and subscribe all bills of costs arising in any cause or proceeding instituted in which he is clerk, agreeably to the rates which shall, for the time being, be allowed or specified by law; and shall in no case allow any item or charge unless he shall be satisfied that the service for which it was made was actually performed in the cause.” (Emphasis supplied.)

We harbor no doubt that this statute is a command to clerks of the appellate courts as well as to clerks of the circuit courts. The use of the term “any court” permits no doubt. By statute, costs and fees accrue in appellate courts as well as in trial courts and, as will be seen, costs and fees assessed in appellate courts are subject to the same methods of collection and enforcement as costs and fees accruing in the circuit courts. Note that under the above statute the clerk is not to allow for any item or charge unless he shall be satisfied that the service for which it was made was actually performed in the cause. This is a plain indication that costs and fees incurred in one court cannot be taxed or assessed and collected in another court; no clerk can know what services were actually performed or fee incurred except those performed or incurred in the court which he serves. In Crum, v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. Co. (1918), 212 Ill. App. 518, 519, the court stated:

“At the common law there was no such thing as a judgment for costs. Under our practice a judgment for costs can only be entered when the same is authorized by statute or by the agreement of the parties. There is no statute authorizing a trial court to tax as costs in that court, costs that are made in the Appellate or Supreme Court.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Thus, it cannot be contended that the costs and fees which accrue and are assessed by the appellate court are to be referred to and collected by process out of the circuit court. Such procedure is not provided by statute. Furthermore, in view of the plenary powers for collection of costs and fees conferred upon the appellate courts, such procedure is unnecessary.

Upon assessment of the appropriate costs and fees in accordance with the applicable statutes, they become due and payable to the clerk of the appellate court and judgment is rendered. Section 13 of division XIV of the Criminal Code of 1874 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 38, par. 180 — 3) provides:

“When any person is convicted of an offense under any statute, or at common law, the court shall give judgment that the offender pay the costs of the prosecution.”

The assessment and imposition of costs under this statute is mandatory and may not be waived as an exercise of judicial discretion. (People v. Harris (1968), 97 Ill. App. 2d 288,240 N.E.2d 123, cert, denied, 395 U.S. 985, 23 L. Ed. 2d 774, 89 S. Ct. 2137; People v. Barringer (1974), 22 Ill. App. 3d 168, 317 N.E.2d 331.) Furthermore, section 13 of division XIV of the Criminal Code of 1874, which directs the court to enter judgment for costs upon a conviction, uses the imperative “shall.” In construing statutes, courts have generally held that the word “shall” is mandatory, particularly when the word is addressed to a public official. (People v. Liddell (1974), 19 Ill. App. 3d 794,313 N.E.2d 248.) It is to be noted that the statute provides that costs can be taxed only upon conviction. Acquitted defendants sustain no liability for costs. Wells v. McCullock (1852), 13 Ill. 606; Heist v. People (1894), 56 Ill. App. 391.

It is readily apparent that section 13 of division XIV of the Criminal Code of 1874 applies to appellate courts as well as to trial courts. Section 22 of “An Act to revise the law in relation to costs” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 33, par. 22) relates to taxation of costs upon affirmance or reversal of judgment on appeal, providing:

“If any person shall take an appeal, to review the judgment of any other court, and the same judgment be affirmed or the appellant be non-suited, the appellee shall recover his costs, and have execution therefor; and if the judgment be reversed, the appellant shall recover his costs, and shall have execution therefor, as in other cases.”

It is to be noted that no distinction is made in this statute between civil or criminal cases. Section 3 of “An Act to establish appellate courts” (Ill. Rev.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
359 N.E.2d 1095, 45 Ill. App. 3d 312, 4 Ill. Dec. 143, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 2079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-nicholls-illappct-1977.