Opinion ID: 2065993
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Costs of Assistant Attorneys General and County Attorney

Text: The trial court imposed costs associated with the travel of the assistant attorneys general, the county attorney who prosecuted the case, and the office manager of the Rice County attorney's office. Lopez-Solis claims that these costs are not recoverable under the prosecution costs statute. The court of appeals relied upon its decision in State v. Niemczyk as authority for allowing recovery of the travel costs incurred by the prosecuting attorneys. Lopez-Solis, 1998 WL 8453, at  (citing Niemczyk, 400 N.W.2d 401, 404 (Minn.App.1987)). Niemczyk, however, did not deal with the travel costs of prosecuting attorneys. Instead, Niemczyk listed various fees recoverable in a civil action, including witness travel costs expressly provided for in section 357.22. 400 N.W.2d at 404. As we have discussed above, section 357.22 applies only to witness travel fees; thus the court of appeals erred when it applied the holding of Niemczyk to allow the recovery of travel costs for the prosecuting attorneys in this case. Therefore, and because travel costs for prosecuting attorneys are not expressly provided for in the prosecution costs statute, we reverse the trial court's imposition of $1,163.95 in travel costs.