Opinion ID: 1466164
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Costs Award

Text: We can be brief with respect to the costs order. The district court awarded costs to both Deere and Fidelity, and plaintiffs challenge both awards. First, we address Deere's costs. Deere requested $74,335.52 in costs, and the court awarded it $54,396.57. Plaintiffs quibble about such matters as the number of copies the district court thought reimbursable and the documentation for those copies, but we see no abuse of discretion in the district court's evaluation of those matters. The only potential problem lies with the copies that Deere admits were made for its own records. We have held that the cost of copies made by an attorney for his or her own records is not recoverable. McIlveen v. Stone Container Corp., 910 F.2d 1581, 1584 (7th Cir.1990). On the other hand, we have also upheld a cost award to a party for copies made for its attorneys. Northbrook Excess & Surplus Ins. Co. v. Procter & Gamble Co., 924 F.2d 633, 643 (7th Cir.1991). This is not an argument, however, that plaintiffs have made, and we are reluctant in the face of apparently conflicting decisions from this court to reach out and decide it on our own. Because of the plaintiffs' forfeiture of this potential legal argument and the lack of merit in plaintiffs' other challenges to the Deere costs order, we affirm that order. (We take no position on the issue we have flagged; there will be time enough in a case in which it is properly presented to resolve it.) Fidelity asked for $186,488.95 in costs, and the court awarded it $164,814.43. While this is a substantial amount, we see no abuse of discretion in the district court's decision. Plaintiffs' principal complaint is that it was improper to award Fidelity its costs for document selection, as opposed to document processing. Fidelity responds that the costs were for converting computer data into a readable format in response to plaintiffs' discovery requests; such costs are recoverable under 28 U.S.C. § 1920. The record supports Fidelity's characterization of the costs, and so we will not disturb the district court's order.