Legal cost

“ Presumptively the value of these policies at the date of the gift was the amount which the insured had expended to acquire them. Cost is cogent evidence of value. And here it is the only suggested criterion which reflects the value to the owner of the entire bundle of rights in a single-premium policy-the right to retain it as well as the right to surrender it. ”

“ Attorneys, solicitors, and proctors may charge their clients reasonably for their services, in addition to the taxable costs, but nothing can be taxed as cost against the opposite party, as an incident to the judgment, for their services, except the costs and fees therein described and enumerated.' No distinction is made by the court or by the statutes between the fees prescribed in admiralty cases as an incident to the judgment and those so incident in other cases. ”

“ So, also, in the oath required by the 5th section of this act, true value imports nothing more nor less than actual cost. Any other construction would place it out of the power of any man to take the oath, where the goods were purchased at a rate at all differing from the market price. The law requires the invoice to be made out according to the actual cost, and this to be sworn to; and if true value means any thing else than actual cost, the oath could not be taken. ”

“ But it has not held affirmatively that the legislature may enforce rates which stop only this side of confiscation, and leave the property in the hands and under the care of the owners without any remuneration for its use. It has declared that the present value of the property is the basis by which the test of reasonableness is to be determined, although the actual cost is to be considered, and that the value of the services rendered to each individual is also to be considered. ”

“ Cost and noncost factors do not, as the Court of Appeals supposed, race one against the other; they must be, as they are here, harnessed side by side. The Commission's responsibilities necessarily oblige it to give continuing attention to values that may be reflected only imperfectly by producers' costs; a regulatory method that excluded as immaterial all but current or projected costs could not properly serve the consumer interests placed under the Commission's protection. ”

“ When a court declares that the rate base shall be the value, instead of the historical cost, or the amount prudently invested in the enterprise, it selects the standard for measuring the property on which compensation is to be paid. It lays down a rule of law, and in the performance of that function there is always a legitimate field for theory. ”

“ Whatever other disadvantages the cost-plus-a-fixed-fee system mat have, no incentive to raise the cost arises from the fixed fee. But when a percentage fee or compensation is provided for, which diminishes or increases in proportion to costs, there is ample motive or at least tendency to increase such costs. ”

“ If the state law lays the tax upon them rather than the individual with whom they enter into a cost-plus contract like the present one, then it affects the Government, like the individual, only as the economic burden is shifted to it through operation of the contract. ”

“ There is the same reason for making the expenses of prosecuting and conducting a suit for the enforcement of a contract, as for the recovery of damages for a trespass divested of every feature of aggravation, the legal compensation for the detention of a debt, is the amount due, interest and costs. Courts and juries can make no allowance for expenses incurred by withholding money justly due, however groundless or unjust the pretext for refusing payment may be. ”

“ The judgment of the circuit court must be affirmed, upon the ground that the assessment against the plaintiff's abutting property was under a rule which excluded any inquiry as to special benefits, and the necessary operation of which was, to the extent of the excess of the cost of opening the street in question over any special benefits accruing to the abutting property therefrom, to take private property for public use without compensation. ”

“ It is a fact—rapidly coming to be recognized by legislative and judicial bodies—that the prescription and regulation of tolls, charges, and assessments against public corporations cannot be made systematic and intelligent unless there is provided some estimate of the value of the property involved, based on the cost of its replacement or reproduction. ”

“ In ascertaining the return protected by the Constitution, the commission is required to take into account and make proper allowances for the actual original and the estimated present cost of the property, including overheads. It is bound to include a just and reasonable amount to cover going value. The amount omitted in respect of each of these items is large enough to invalidate rates based on the valuation. ”

“ And, in absence of contrary showing and finding, its charges must be deemed to have been considered just and reasonable by the regulatory authorities of the state and by the public. Unquestionably, and the opinion of this court so implies, millions should be added to the cost figures applicable to the physical items in order to find the value of plaintiff's property, the amount protected by the Constitution. The ground on which the commission excluded going value was that the cost of attaching the business was charged to operating expenses. The District Court followed the commission. ”

“ We would not so limit the relevant cost justifications. To prevent definitional arguments, and to ensure that all proper bases of quantity discount may be used, the modification should be worded in terms of allowing all legitimate cost justifications. ”

“ The ordinance provided that the cost and expense of the condemnation of the property, including the compensation paid to the owners, the cost of the condemnation proceedings, the cost of advertising, and all other costs, and the interest on bonds issued, if any, should be assessed 'per front foot upon the property bounding and abutting on that part of Ivanhoe avenue, as condemned and appropriated herein.'-the assessments payable in 10 annual installments, if deferred, and the same collected as prescribed by law, and in the assessing ordinance thereafter to be passed. ”

“ Of what avail is the constitutional provision that no State shall deprive any person of his property except by due process of law, if the State can, by fixing the compensation which he may receive for its use, take from him all that is valuable in the property? To what purpose can the constitutional prohibition upon the State against impairing the obligation of contracts be invoked, if the State can, in the face of a charter authorizing a company to charge reasonable rates, prescribe what rates shall be deemed reasonable for services rendered? ”

“ Where a person, detained by judicial decision, has no settlement, the costs of maintenance fall on the province in which he was arrested or brought before the Court; in the case of souteneurs the cost is borne by the Communes in which they pursued their practices. Costs of maintenance can, however, be recovered from the persons concerned, or those legally liable for their support. ”

“ The popular impression that the courts are organized to give business to lawyers and to afford jobs to place-hunters rather than to promote the ends of justice is by no means groundless. The cost of our judicial system to litigants plus the excessive cost saddled upon the taxpayers will sooner or later attract the scrutiny of the public. Social legislation that calls for increased expenditures and upon which men have set their hearts will compel economy in our judicial expenditures. ”

“ In regard to the general question of the profits to be accounted for by the defendants, as to the volumes in question, the only proper rule to be adopted is to deduct from the selling price the actual and legitimate manufacturing cost. ”

“ The whole matter of costs, including the party to or against whom they may be given, the items or sums to be allowed, and the right to costs as depending upon the nature of the suit, upon the amount or value of the thing sued for or recovered, or upon other circumstances, is, and always has been, within the regulation and control of the legislature, exercising its discretionary power, not oppressively to either party, but as the best interests of the litigants and of the public may appear to it to demand. ”

“ It provides that there shall be 'taxed against the losing party in each and every cause pending in the Supreme Court' the cost of printing the record, except when the judgment is against the United States. This exception of the United States in the section with its emphatic inclusion of every other litigant shows that a state as litigant must pay the costs of printing, if it loses, in every case, civil or criminal. These costs constitute a large part of all the costs. The section certainly constitutes pro tanto statutory authority to impose costs generally against a state if defeated. ”

“ The most elementary notion of justice would seem to require that services or property furnished upon the authority of the court or its officer, acting within his authority, for the common benefit of those interested in a fund administered by the court, should be paid from the fund as an 'expense of justice.' The Phebe, 1 Ware, 354, 359, Fed. ”

“ From our standpoint we think the cost of doing business has nothing to do with the method of doing business. It is true the statute may necessitate a large expenditure but that would not mean anything because by a large expenditure you might make a much larger profit. Perhaps we don't understand each other but I think that is the basis of measuring the value of the matter in controversy.'↑ Buck v. ”

“ But when the chance of the cost exceeding the benefit grows large, and the amount of the not improbable excess is great, it may not follow that the case last cited will be a precedent. Constitutional rights like others are matters of degree. ”

“ For the individual members who now have the benefits of the services performed by the Society, additional allegations set out the cost imposed upon them by the statutory regulation as being 'in excess of $10,000' to each for carrying on for themselves the functions now performed for them by the Society. ”

“ In fact, the common law rule which requires the charge to be reasonable is itself a regulation as to price.... To limit the rate of charge for services rendered in a public employment, or for the use of property in which the public has an interest, is only changing a regulation which existed before. It establishes no new principle in the law, but only gives a new effect to an old one. ”

“ The law does not require a party to pay for imperfect and defective work the price stipulated for a perfect structure, and, when the price is demanded, will allow him to deduct the difference between that price and the value of the inferior work, and also the amount of any direct damages flowing from existing defects, not exceeding the demand of the plaintiffs. This is a rule of strict justice, and the deduction is allowed in a suit upon the contract, to prevent circuity of action.' 21 Wall. ”

“ Notwithstanding the admitted power to correct existing economic ills by appropriate regulation of business, even though an indirect result may be a restriction of the freedom of contract or a modification of charges for services or the price of commodities, the appellant urges that direct fixation of prices is a type of regulation absolutely forbidden. ”

“ It is the appropriate task of the commission to determine the value of the property affected by the rates it fixes, as that of an integrated, operating enterprise, and it is the function of the court in deciding whether rates are confiscatory not to lay down a formula, much less to prescribe an arbitrary allowance, but to examine the result of the legislative action in order to determine whether its total effect is to deny to the owner of the property a fair return for its use. ”

“ The questions presented are controlled by the clause of the Fifth Amendment providing that private property shall not be 'taken for public use, without just compensation.' This Court has never attempted to prescribe a rigid rule for determining what is 'just compensation' under all circumstances and in all cases. Fair market value has normally been accepted as a just standard. But when market value has been too difficult to find, or when its application would result in manifest injustice to owner or public, courts have fashioned and applied other standards. ”

“ I think that the petitioner has failed to sustain the burden, which rests upon it in a confiscation case from a state court as well as from any other, to show that the item of expense for 'new business' was a proper charge against gross income. The property for which constitutional protection is invoked is that 'used and useful in the public service,' not the enlarged business of the future which petitioner hopes to obtain through the present expenditure of money. ”

“ With the estimate of the physical value of a property before it—which represents money actually invested, together with such accruals to costs as it may be determined that the owner is reasonably entitled to have considered—any Court, tribunal, or commission is in a better position to mete out impartial justice, whether it be the regulation of a rate, the assessment of a tax, or the imposition of a fine. ”

“ To justify the exaction by a state of a money payment burdening interstate commerce, it must affirmatively appear that it is demanded as reimbursement for the expense of providing facilities, or of enforcing regulations of the commerce which are within its constitutional power. ”