In Bumpers v. Austal USA, LLC, Case No. 08-00155 (S.D. Al., Nov. 5, 2015), judgment was entered in favor of Defendant. As the prevailing party, Defendant filed a bill of costs, which included production costs. Plaintiff objected to the bill of costs. The clerk then taxed the Bill of Costs, and Defendant filed a Motion to Relax Costs, to which Plaintiff also objected.
The court rejected Defendant’s request to recover Pro Hac Vice admissions fees, as these are expenses of counsel. The court also rejected the request to recover costs of video depositions, as Defendant did not specify in the deposition notices that they would be videotaped instead of stenographed (instead saying it could be either) and did not elaborate to the court on why a video deposition was needed.
However, the court did permit an award of costs for deposition transcripts, while denying a request for recovery of court transcript costs. The court granted subpoena fees and some printing costs, but denied others. The court denied costs for Defendant’s expert witness, as well as mediation and attorney travel.
Notably, the court denied recovery of costs for compilation of emails and other electronic data for use by Plaintiff’s expert witness. The court found that Defendant had not described how the electronic productions were needed for anything other than the convenience of counsel.