Opinion ID: 1255717
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether the district court erred in refusing to include the award of costs to Means in the Semenzas' award of costs.

Text: The Semenzas argue that the district court erred in failing to pass Means' costs, assessed against them, through to Caughlin, the nonprevailing defendant. Respondents counter that it would be against public policy to allow a losing plaintiff who has frivolously filed a claim and is penalized under NRS 18.010(2)(b) to transfer the costs owed to a prevailing defendant to a losing defendant. They claim that this would encourage plaintiffs to increase the number of defendants notwithstanding the weakness of their case against them. We agree with the Semenzas. In Schouweiler v. Yancey Co., 101 Nev. 827, 712 P.2d 786 (1985), a homeowners association sued six different construction companies who were represented by six different counsel. Three of the defendant construction companies lost and three prevailed. Referring to the homeowners' motion to pass prevailing defendants' costs through to the losing defendants, this court stated: Judgment was entered against [the three losing defendants] in favor of Homeowners; therefore, Homeowners prevailed against these defendants. Because the [three] prevailing defendants ... are allowed to tax their costs against Homeowners pursuant to NRS 18.020, these costs become costs incurred by Homeowners. Accordingly, we conclude that the costs of the prevailing defendants may be recovered by Homeowners from the losing defendants pursuant to NRS 18.020. Id. at 832, 712 P.2d at 789; see also Flamingo Realty v. Midwest Development, 110 Nev. 984, 993, 879 P.2d 69, 74 (1994). Given our conclusion that the Semenzas' claim against Means was not brought without reasonable grounds and given the policy reasons underlying Schouweiler, we conclude that the Semenzas may recover from the losing defendant the costs they were obligated to pay to the prevailing defendant.