Opinion ID: 453396
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: expert witness's fees.

Text: 15 The district court authorized payment of plaintiff's cost in this case upon submission of an itemized bill of costs. Nemmers v. City of Dubuque, No. C 80-1026, slip op. at 14 (N.D.Iowa April 20, 1984). The clerk of the court taxed plaintiff's costs to the defendant in the amount of $11,901. The city appealed this determination, and the district court affirmed the award of expert fees, finding that the testimony of plaintiff's expert was indispensable to the determination that plaintiff's property had been 'taken'. Nemmers v. City of Dubuque, No. C 80-1026, slip op. at p. 3 (N.D.Iowa, June 12, 1984). 16 We find no error in this taxation of expert witness costs to the city. Although the traditional rule under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821 has been that expert fees are not recoverable beyond the statutory allowance for attendance, mileage and subsistence, see Kivi v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 695 F.2d 1285, 1289 (11th Cir.1983), this Court has seen fit to award expert fees under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(d), when the expert's testimony was crucial to the issues decided. Coleman v. City of Omaha, 714 F.2d 804, 809 (8th Cir.1983). 17 In Paschall v. Kansas City Star Co., 695 F.2d 322, 338-39 (8th Cir.1982), vacated on other grounds, 727 F.2d 692, 704 (8th Cir.1984), this Court approved the Third Circuit's approach, by which [a] district court should    carefully scrutinize the prevailing party's bill of costs in order to assure that any award will compensate those expenditures necessary to the litigation, id. at 339, citing Roberts v. S.S. Kyriakoula D. Lemos, 651 F.2d 201, 206 (3d Cir.1981). Again, we find this procedure to be proper under Rule 54(d) where the expert testimony is crucial to the resolution of the disputed issue. 4 18 In accordance with this standard, we conclude that the district court properly found that Nemmers's appraiser's report was crucial to the resolution of the question of the taking dispute and of the issue of just compensation. Although the district court did not grant the relief requested in the report, it carefully considered the improvement costs and the as is value, and it made explicit findings regarding the importance of the report to its decision. From our review of the record, we also find that the district court's requirement of an itemized bill of costs and its affirmance of the clerk's taxation of costs reflects the proper kind of close scrutiny in this kind of case. Therefore, we affirm the taxation of costs ordered by the district court. 19 Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is affirmed as it relates to the bill of costs, but reversed on the damages issue. We remand to the district court for entry of an order awarding Nemmers $89,812.35 in damages plus interest from the date of the commencement of the action pursuant to Iowa Code Section 535.3 and $11,901 in expert witness fees. 20