Opinion ID: 75953
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court's Costs Award

Text: 73 Finally, Maris argues that the district court erred by awarding costs related to certain depositions taken by Anheuser-Busch that were not used at trial, and for costs associated with receiving expedited, daily transcripts of the trial proceedings. The district court held that the deposition costs should be taxed because all of the people Anheuser-Busch deposed had been identified by Maris on its witness list, and the depositions consequently were taken within the proper bounds of discovery and were necessary in light of the facts known to Anheuser-Busch at the time. With respect to the cost of expedited transcripts, the district court stated: 74 According to the Defendant, such transcripts were necessary to the preparation of a defense, including witness examination, jury instructions, and closing arguments. The Defendant further contends that the transcripts were necessary to preserve oral rulings made by the Court and were indispensable because of the length and complexity of the case. The Court agrees that this was a lengthy and complex trial, and objections to the taxation of costs for expedited transcripts and trial transcripts are due to be overruled. 75 As we will explain, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in awarding the costs that it did. 76 We have recognized that we will not disturb a costs award in the absence of a clear abuse of discretion. Technical Resource Servs. v. Dornier Medical Sys., 134 F.3d 1458, 1468 (11th Cir.1998). But the Supreme Court has held that a district court abuses its discretion if it awards costs pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 54 in excess of those permitted by Congress under 28 U.S.C. § 1920. Crawford Fitting Co. v. J.T. Gibbons, Inc., 482 U.S. 437, 107 S.Ct. 2494, 96 L.Ed.2d 385 (1987). Expenses for the stenographic transcript necessarily obtained for use in the case are permitted by § 1920. 77 Although some courts have not permitted the recovery of deposition costs where the depositions are for discovery, rather than for use in the case, see Hall v. Ohio Education Assoc., 984 F.Supp. 1144, 1146 (S.D.Ohio 1997), we have held that [t]axation of deposition costs of witnesses on the losing party's witness list is reasonable because the listing of those witnesses indicated both that the plaintiff might need the deposition transcripts to cross-examine the witnesses, ... and that the information those people had on the subject matter was not so irrelevant or so unimportant that their depositions were outside the bound of discovery. EEOC v. W & O, Inc., 213 F.3d 600, 621 (11th Cir.2000). Therefore, because all of the depositions of which Maris complains were taken of people on Maris's witness list, the district court did not abuse its discretion by awarding these deposition-related costs. 78 Whether the costs for the expedited transcripts were properly taxed presents a closer question. In In re Nissan Antitrust Litigation, 577 F.2d 910 (5th Cir.1978), our predecessor Court found that a district court had abused its discretion by permitting such costs, stating: 79 As an individual portion of the costs, the trial court awarded costs for an expedited daily transcript requested solely by the defendants and to which the plaintiffs had not agreed. This additional expense was for the convenience of the defendants and was, by no means, indispensable. Therefore, this award was an abuse of discretion. 80 Id. at 918. See also Pan American Grain Manufacturing Co. v. Puerto Rico Ports Authority, 193 F.R.D. 26, 34 (D.P.R.2000) (district court in Puerto Rico holding that the additional costs for an expedited transcript should not be permitted where a party had ample representation during trial, and their attorneys could have taken day-to-day notes on the proceedings). However, in reaching our conclusion in Nissan, we did not hold that the costs associated with expedited transcripts could never be deemed necessary by a district court. To the contrary, we expressly noted that expedited transcripts were not indispensable in that case. 81 Although we do not believe that the costs associated with expedited trial transcripts should be allowed as a matter of course, lest litigation costs be unnecessarily increased, the district court found that expedited transcripts were necessary in this case given its length and complexity. Under the circumstances, we cannot say that the district court clearly abused its discretion by reaching this conclusion.