Court Opinion

ID: 9673352
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:10:29.752886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:21.718962
License: Public Domain

UHLENHOPP, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in all of the court's opinion except the statement, “We believe this means that a cost award may include only the costs of depositions which are introduced into evidence in whole or in part at trial.” (Emphasis added.)
Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 157(a) states in pertinent part:
The judgment shall award against the losing party only such portion of these [depositions] costs as were necessarily incurred for testimony offered and admitted upon the trial.
(Emphasis added.) I would apply the rule literally. If a deposition runs for one hundred pages but a party offers and the court receives only five pages of it, to me those five pages constitute the “testimony offered and admitted upon the trial.” I would limit the award of costs to those five pages and would not include the entire deposition.
Rule 157(a) as written reflects the current effort to hold down court costs. Moreover, if the winner can thrust upon the loser the expense of numerous, lengthy *732depositions by simply introducing part of each deposition into evidence, the temptation will be to do so.