Opinion ID: 2599393
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Travel expenses

Text: Buscher requested $6,904.35 for travel expenses, including airfare, rental car fees, lodging, expenses, and meals. The circuit court awarded her costs in the amount of $6,593.04, but did not explain the $311.31 reduction. In support of her airfare and rental car expenses, Buscher provided travel itineraries detailing the date each cost was incurred, the matter requiring travel ( e.g., circuit court hearing re: Motions/Settlement Conference), airline flight departure and arrival information, copies of airline coupons used with the passenger's name, rental car charges, and credit card charges showing payment of each expense. Despite having this detailed information, Defendants do not object to any specific travel expense request; their objection, in its entirety, states: There was no satisfactory explanation for who incurred these expenses or specifically what they were for. The cost of hotel lodging for witnesses was not awarded by the trial court in the Harkins case and the appellate court agreed. See Harkins v. Ikeda, [57 Haw. 378, 557 P.2d 788] (1976). Contrary to Defendants' implication, as stated above, [b]ecause there is a presumption that the prevailing party may be awarded its costs, the burden of showing that a particular cost request is unreasonable is more properly on the adverse party. Wong, 88 Hawai`i at 53, 961 P.2d at 618 (rejecting non-moving party's argument that lower court abused its discretion because moving party failed to explain why the costs were necessary). As we held in Wong : [W]hen costs are awardable to a prevailing party under HRCP Rule 54(d) and a particular taxable cost is allowed by statute or precedent, then actual disbursements for this purpose are presumptively reasonable. The adverse party has the burden of challenging the reasonableness of a particular cost request. In the absence of a challenge to a particular request, it is not an abuse of discretion for the trial court to award the cost requested as presumptively reasonable. Id. at 53-54, 961 P.2d at 618-19. With this in mind, we address each of the categories in Buscher's request for travel expenses. First, airfare clearly falls within HRS § 607-9's intrastate travel expenses category, as do expenditures for parking, rental car, and gas. Wong, 88 Hawai`i at 54, 961 P.2d at 619. On the other hand, [m]eals are not taxable costs. The necessity for eating lunch is severable from and unrelated to the litigation. Id. at 54-55, 961 P.2d at 619-20. After a careful review of the record, it appears that $466.23 of the costs requested were for meals, which are not taxable costs according to Wong. Id. Thus, this amount should be deducted from Buscher's award. With respect to Buscher's request for the cost of lodging, we have stated that [h]otel expenditures are reasonable only if necessary due to the scheduling of court proceedings or depositions. Hotel expenditures for the convenience of counsel should not be allowed. Id. at 54, 961 P.2d at 619. As stated above, Defendants do not challenge a particular request, but merely cite to Harkins v. Ikeda , for the proposition that hotel lodging for witnesses is not a taxable cost. Defendants, however, do not point to anything in the record indicating that the hotel lodging expense was for witnesses. Defendants also do not argue that the hotel expenditures were otherwise unnecessary or unreasonable. Thus, it is clear that Defendants fail to show that the circuit court abused its discretion in awarding this cost. See Int'l Bro. of Elec. Workers v. Hawaiian Tel., 68 Haw. 316, 322 n. 7, 713 P.2d 943, 950 n. 7 (1986) (Counsel has no right to cast upon the court the burden of searching through a voluminous record to find the ground of an objection. (Citation omitted.)). Absent any argument by Defendants objecting to any of Buscher's specific travel expense entries, we conclude that Buscher is entitled to an award of costs for travel expenses in the amount of $6,438.12, which reflects a reduction of $466.23 for the cost of meals.