Opinion ID: 20728
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Award of Costs Other than Attorneys' Fees

Text: 36 On January 7, 1999, the district court issued its Memorandum Opinion and Order granting Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment in its entirety, finding that Byers had not established a prima facie case of either racial discrimination or retaliation, and dismissing each of Byers's claims. As required under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58, this Court set forthits judgment on a separate sheet of paper, which was also signed and entered on January 7, 1999. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 58. In that judgment, the district court explained that the case was dismissed with prejudice and that [e]ach party shall bear its own costs. This Final Judgment was incorrectly dated January 7, 1998. On February 19, 1999, Defendant filed its Motion to Modify Final Judgment to Award Costs and Correct Clerical Error, pursuant to Rules 60(a) and (b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(a) and (b). Byers's Response was filed on March 10, 1999. 37 In its Request for Leave to Consider 60(b) Motion, the district court found that its initial decision to award costs to the party incurring them was made in error and asserted its desire to correct the mistake. However, at the time of this Request for Leave, both parties had already filed their Notices of Appeal with this Court, and the district court no longer had jurisdiction over the case. The district court stated that if it had jurisdiction it would issue an order modifying its previous Final Judgment to award costs to the Defendant, pursuant to Federal Rule of Procedure 60(b), which allows courts to modify their judgments, upon motion, because of an earlier mistake. 38 On April 8, 1999, this Court remanded the instant case back to the district court, thereby granting its March 19, 1999 request for leave to consider the Rule 60(b) motion. The district court then decided to grant TDMN's motion, awarding TDMN costs other than attorneys' fees. On appeal, Byers contends that the district court erred in awarding costs to the prevailing party and requests that this Court order that each party bear its own costs. Byers maintains that the district court should not have awarded costs to TDMN absent a finding that his claims were frivolous, unreasonable, without foundation, or filed in bad faith. In support, Byers relies primarily on Christianburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412 (1978). 39 We hold that the district court correctly awarded costs to TDMN. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54 governs the award of costs in cases brought in federal court: [e]xcept when express provision therefore is made either in a statute of the United States or in these rules, costs other than attorneys' fees shall be allowed as of course to the prevailing party unless the court otherwise directs. Fed.R.Civ.P. 54. Title VII does not expressly provide otherwise, and the standard procedure is to award costs to the prevailing party in Title VII suits. The prevailing party standard for awarding costs under Rule 54(d)(1) is less stringent than the prevailing party test for awarding attorney's fees under Title VII. Furthermore, this Court has held that the Christianburg standard for determining whether a defendant is a prevailing party under Title VII does not apply to an award of costs. Lewis v. NLRB, 750 F.2d 1266, 1279, reh'g denied, 756 F.2d 882 (5th Cir. 1985). 40 Accordingly, we find that the district court correctly awarded costs other than attorneys' fees to TDMN as the prevailing party.