Court Opinion

ID: 9853502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:49:39.497496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:50.191825
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring with comments).
I concur in the decision but add these comments.
The striking of the $242.25 as the costs incurred by the defendant in taking depositions necessarily amounts to a ruling that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the plaintiff’s motion to strike that item of costs. Though I offer no argument against that ruling, I think it deserves a bit of explanation.
The statement in the court’s opinion that "the critical consideration is that the depositions were not used by the defendant during the course of the trial” may be subject to misunderstanding and perhaps misapplication in other circumstances. I do not think that whether the expense of taking a deposition should be allowed as costs should depend entirely on whether it was actually used during the trial. It may well be that it serves a useful and legitimate purpose and yet never be necessary to use it during the trial.
A good statement of the law to which I subscribe was made by Chief Justice Callis-ter in the Lawson Supply Co. case, footnote 3 main opinion:
A test which has been applied in determining the propriety of allowing as costs the expense of a deposition . is whether the deposition was necessarily obtained in the sense that the taking of the deposition . . . [was] reasonably necessary for the development of the case in the light of the situation then existing. [Citing authority.] [Emphasis added.]
Further, whether that test is met would normally rest within the sound discretion of the trial court. However, in this case, because of the fact that the depositions were neither used in the trial, nor was any showing made or offered that they had been necessary for any other purpose in connection with the case, I do not disagree with what amounts to a ruling by this Court that the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the costs of the depositions.