Opinion ID: 1196953
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: attorney's fees and coststhe loverchecks

Text: The rule in Wyoming is that attorney's fees are not recoverable in the absence of specific statutory authority, unless there is a contract providing for them. Sheneman v. Division of Workers' Safety and Compensation Internal Hearing Unit, Dept. of Employment, State of Wyo., 962 P.2d 874, 875 (Wyo.1998); Ahearn v. Tri-County Federal Sav. Bank, 954 P.2d 1371, 1373 (Wyo.1998). The contract for sale at issue here provided: In the event that any party shall become in default or breach of any of the terms of this Contract, such defaulting or breaching party shall pay all reasonable attorney's fees and other expenses which the nonbreaching or nondefaulting party may incur in enforcing this Contract with or without suit. Snyder contends that the clause mandates that a party be found in default or breach before attorney's fees can be awarded. Snyder claims that since the district court did not specifically find that he had breached the contract, the condition precedent to an award of attorney's fees has not occurred, and the award was improper. The Loverchecks assert that there is no such condition precedent, and any attorney's fees incurred in enforcing the contract are properly awarded, if reasonable. We find that the provision plainly provides that one party to the contract breach the agreement before an award of attorney's fees is properly granted. Here, the district court made no finding that Snyder breached the contract. While we have said that in the absence of special findings of fact, a district court judgment carries with it every finding of fact which is supported by the evidence, Bishop v. Bishop, 944 P.2d 425, 428 (Wyo.1997) ( quoting Deroche v. R.L. Manning Co., 737 P.2d 332, 335 (Wyo.1987)), and a judgment will be affirmed on any legal ground appearing in the record, Bird, 948 P.2d at 892, there is no evidence in the record on appeal which would support a finding that Snyder did not fulfill his obligation to pay for the farm. Accordingly, we remand to the district court for a determination whether Snyder breached the contract for sale.
Snyder contends that the district court erred when it awarded all of the costs claimed by the Loverchecks, because it did not follow the dictates of U.R.D.C. 501. He questions the propriety of awards of expert fees, deposition costs, photographs, and Westlaw research. The Loverchecks respond by asserting that they are proper under the rule, and even if they are not, the contract for sale provides for the payment of all    other expenses   . Costs are purely statutory, as they did not exist at common law. Weaver v. Mitchell, 715 P.2d 1361, 1373 (Wyo.1986) ( quoting Roberts Construction Co. v. Vondriska, 547 P.2d 1171, 1183 (Wyo.1976)). However, this is true only in the absence of an agreement concerning costs between the parties. Kerns v. Engelke, 76 Ill.2d 154, 28 Ill.Dec. 500, 390 N.E.2d 859, 865 (1979); Luppold v. Lewis, 172 Mont. 280, 563 P.2d 538, 545 (1977); Washington Asphalt Co. v. Boyd, 63 Wash.2d 690, 388 P.2d 965, 969 (1964); 20 C.J.S. Costs § 4 at 12 (1990). Parties to an agreement are free to bargain for payment of costs, just as they can bargain for payment of attorney's fees. The parties' agreement to an allocation of costs is not subject to the provisions of U.R.D.C. 501. The contract provided for the payment of all    other expenses   . [3] The district court awarded all of the expenses claimed by the Loverchecks in accordance with the agreement, and no argument has been made to this Court that these expenses were unreasonable. The costs, like the award of attorney's fees, however, cannot be awarded absent breach or default by Snyder, and, therefore, we remand this issue to the district court as well. One element of the costs claimed can be finally resolved by this decision. The Loverchecks included $96.60 in Westlaw research in their inventory of costs. We conclude that computer research expenditures are included within attorney's fees and are not taxable as costs. 6 J. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice, ¶ 54.77[8] (2d ed.1986) states that [c]omputer research is generally treated as a lawyer's cost and not taxable as ordinary costs[.]    Similarly, 20 Am.Jur.2d Costs § 61 (1995) states that [t]he expense of computer-aided research is also a component of attorney's fees, and like any other legal research such expense cannot be taxed as [an] item of cost in addition to the attorney's fees award.    These conclusions are confirmed by the Annotation on the Recoverability of Cost of Computerized Legal Research Under 28 USCA § 1920 or Rule 54(d), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 80 A.L.R.Fed. 168 (1986). Bjornen v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co., 81 Hawai`i 105, 912 P.2d 602, 604 (1996). We vacate the award of costs for the Westlaw research, as that cost should have been included in the claim for attorney's fees. Since the research fee was not included in the original proof of attorney's fees, it cannot now be added to the attorney's fees already claimed. Pekas v. Thompson, 903 P.2d 532, 537 (Wyo.1995).