Opinion ID: 4531407
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Federal Law on Costs

Text: Rule 54(d) provides that “costs—other than attorney’s fees—should be allowed to the prevailing party.” 1 Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d)(1). The language appears open-ended. But relying on the history behind the provision, the Supreme Court has placed strict limits on what can be awarded. In the Founding era congressional legislation permitted costs to prevailing parties provided by state law. See Taniguchi v. Kan Pac. Saipan, Ltd., 566 U.S. 560, 564 (2012). Although that statute expired in 1799, “the practice of referring to state rules for the taxation of costs persisted” for half a century. Id. at 565. But two problems led Congress in 1853 to “standardize the costs allowable in federal litigation”: (1) the “great diversity in practice among the courts,” and (2) the “exorbitant fees” that had been imposed on losing litigants. Alyeska Pipeline Serv. Co. v. Wilderness Soc’y, 421 U.S. 240, 251 (1975). In relevant part, the 1853 statute said “[t]hat in lieu of the compensation now allowed by law to attorneys, solicitors, and witnesses in the several States, the following and no other compensation shall be taxed and allowed.” Crawford Fitting Co. v. J.T. Gibbons, Inc., 482 U.S. 437, 440 (1987) (emphasis added, ellipsis and internal quotation 1 Rule 54(d)(1) provides in full: Unless a federal statute, these rules, or a court order provides otherwise, costs—other than attorney’s fees—should be allowed to the prevailing party. But costs against the United States, its officers, and its agencies may be imposed only to the extent allowed by law. The clerk may tax costs on 14 days’ notice. On motion served within the next 7 days, the court may review the clerk’s action. 4 marks omitted). The statute “specif[ied] in detail the nature and amount of the taxable items of cost in the federal courts,” Alyeska Pipeline, 421 U.S. at 252, thereby “comprehensively regulat[ing] fees and the taxation of fees as costs in the federal courts,” Crawford Fitting, 482 U.S. at 440. The “substance of this Act was transmitted” through various statutory recodifications and is now codified as 28 U.S.C. § 1920, “without any apparent intent to change the controlling rules.” Taniguchi, 566 U.S. at 565 (internal quotation marks omitted). Today, § 1920 enumerates six categories of costs that may be taxed: (1) clerk and marshal fees, (2) fees for “recorded transcripts necessarily obtained for use in the case,” (3) expenses for printing and witnesses, (4) expenses for exemplification and necessary copies, (5) docket fees, and (6) compensation of interpreters and court-appointed experts. 28 U.S.C. § 1920; see Taniguchi, 566 U.S. at 573 (“[T]axable costs are limited by statute and are modest in scope . . . .”). Most importantly, the Supreme Court has construed Rule 54(d) to be limited by § 1920. As it held in Crawford Fitting, “§ 1920 defines the term ‘costs’ as used in Rule 54(d).” 482 U.S. at 441 (emphasis added). The discretion provided by Rule 54(d) is “solely a power to decline to tax, as costs, the items enumerated in § 1920.” Id. at 442. The Court explained: “If Rule 54(d) grants courts discretion to tax whatever costs may seem appropriate, then § 1920, which enumerates the costs that may be taxed, serves no role whatsoever.” Id.; see 10 James Wm. Moore et al., Moore’s Federal Practice § 54.103 at 185–86 (3d. ed. 2011) (“The Crawford Fitting rule that only those costs expressly allowed by statute may be awarded under Rule 54(d)(1) implicitly rejected a line of authority recognizing other possible sources for an award of costs, including local 5 rules, the custom of the district, and the court’s general equitable powers.”). Crawford concluded: “Any argument that a federal court is empowered to exceed the limitations explicitly set out in [28 U.S.C.] §§ 1920 and 1821 [setting limits on witness fees] without plain evidence of congressional intent to supersede those sections ignores our longstanding practice of construing statutes in pari materia.” 482 U.S. at 445. Thus, it held “that absent explicit statutory or contractual authorization for the taxation of the expenses of a litigant’s witness as costs, federal courts are bound by the limitations set out in 28 U.S.C. § 1821 and § 1920.” Id. Within the last decade the Supreme Court has reaffirmed its rejection of “the view that the discretion granted by Rule 54(d) is a separate source of power to tax as costs expenses not enumerated in § 1920.” Taniguchi, 566 U.S. at 565 (internal quotation marks omitted). These cases make it crystal clear that Rule 54(d)(1) would not permit the award of costs for electronic legal research or for attorney travel and lodging.