Opinion ID: 1932226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: on appeal from taxation of costs

Text: In the taxation of the costs in connection with the judgment of this court, the clerk taxed in favor of the defendant as indemnity for the expense of printing the evidence on appeal the sum of $50, rather than the entire expense which amounted, it is alleged, to $435.10. From this taxation the defendant has taken this appeal. The case was tried to the jury. The defendant appealed both from the judgment and from the denial of her motion to set aside the verdict. On the appeal she prevailed only to the extent that the verdict was set aside unless a remittitur was filed. In the record on appeal the evidence was printed for a dual purpose. It was for use in connection with the defendant's assignments of error looking to a correction of the finding and also as a basis for her claim that the verdict should have been set aside. There are two sections of our rules which provide for taxing as costs the expense of printing the evidence. One of these is Practice Book, § 369. This relates to the printing of evidence upon an appeal from the denial of a motion to set aside a verdict. It provides that such expense, not exceeding fifty dollars, may be taxed in favor of the prevailing party. It was in accordance with this section that the clerk taxed the costs in this case. The other section is Practice Book, § 351. This section is within the division of the rules of appellate procedure which relates exclusively to cases which have been tried to the court. It provides that in such cases an appellant, if he prevails, may have as part of his taxable costs the full expense to which he has been put, with a certain exception, for the printing of evidence in support of his assignments of error in the finding. It is under this section that the defendant claims in this appeal. Inasmuch as this section in terms applies only to cases tried by the court and this case was tried to the jury, it would seem clear that it does not apply to this case. The defendant, however, claims that it does apply by reason of the provisions of Practice Book, § 356. That section reads in part: The procedure to correct the finding in jury cases shall be in accordance with the procedure for correction of the finding in cases tried to the court, so far as applicable. The defendant's claim is that this means that the taxation of costs for the printing of evidence to correct a finding in a jury case is to be the same as the taxation of costs for the printing of the evidence to correct the finding in a court case. The answer to that claim is obvious. The taxation of costs which follows entry of judgment is no part of the procedure to correct the finding. Section 356 has no bearing upon the question of taxable costs. As a matter of fact, there is no rule in the Practice Book that contemplates the taxation of any costs to indemnify a prevailing party for his expense of printing evidence for the sole purpose of securing the correction of the finding in a jury case. The only rule authorizing the taxation of the expense of printing evidence which is applicable to the present case is § 369, the section pursuant to which the clerk acted. The appeal from the taxation of costs is denied.