Opinion ID: 2631240
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Copies of Depositions Taken by Plaintiff of Plaintiff's Doctors

Text: ¶ 9 The trial court awarded the hospital $428.35 for copies of the depositions taken by plaintiff of the doctors who treated her. The doctors were employees of the hospital. Defendant argues that the trial court did not exceed the permitted range of discretion in awarding this amount because plaintiff read the doctors' depositions into the record at trial. However, in order to award the prevailing party its expenses associated with depositions, the trial court must determine that the depositions were essential for the development and presentation of that party's case. In other words, the hospital could only recover the amount it spent for copies of the depositions of its own doctors in this case if copies of the depositions were essential to the hospital's case. Therefore, the fact that the plaintiff read the depositions of her attending doctors into the record is insignificant to the determination of whether copies of the depositions were essential to defendant's case. ¶10 We conclude that copies of the plaintiff's doctors' depositions were not essential to defendant's case and that the trial court exceeded the permitted range of discretion in awarding these expenses as costs. The copies the hospital obtained were of the depositions taken of the hospital's own employees. As the plaintiff points out, there were other methods of acquiring the information contained in the depositions from the doctors. For example, the hospital could have interviewed the doctors prior to trial. Therefore, copies of the doctors' depositions were not essential for the development and presentation of the hospital's case. We reverse the trial court's award of costs for the copies of the depositions of plaintiff's doctors.