Legal costs

“ By section 823 it is provided that the fees allowed in that chapter, and no other 'compensation,' shall be taxed and allowed in the courts of the United States, to the officers therein named and to witnesses, except in cases otherwise expressly provided by law; leaving attorneys, solicitors, and proctors to charge and receive from their clients, other than the government, such reasonable compensation for their services, in addition to the taxable costs, as may be in accordance with general usage in their respective states, or as may be agreed upon between the two parties. ”

“ This two per cent is to be in lieu of all costs and fees in such proceeding. If it be costs taxable against defendants, then where, after a long litigation, the defendant is adjudged to pay ten dollars and costs, he escapes by paying ten dollars and twenty cents in full. ”

“ Some objection is made to the first, second, and third sections because there is no provision for the recovery of costs. Without determining whether in point of fact costs can be recovered, it is sufficient to say that costs, eo nomine, were not recoverable at common law, and are usually regulated by statute. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The sources bearing on eighteenth-century English practice-reports and manuals-uniformly support the power not only to give a fixed allowance for the various steps in a suit, what are known as costs 'between party and party,' but also as much of the entire expenses of the litigation of one of the parties as fair justice to the other party will permit, technically known as costs 'as between solicitor and client.' [2] To be sure, the usual case is one where through the complainant's efforts a fund is recovered in which others share. ”

“ As to the costs and expenses, we perceive no error in the allowance of them in the circuit court. They are not matters positively limited by law, but are allowed in the exercise of a sound discretion of the court. And, besides, it may be added, that no appeal lies from a mere decree respecting costs and expenses. ”

“ The Court fees shall be fixed at such a level as to ensure a right balance between the principle of fair access to justice, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, micro-entities, natural persons, non-profit organisations, universities and public research organisations and an adequate contribution of the parties for the costs incurred by the Court, recognising the economic benefits to the parties involved, and the objective of a self-financing Court with balanced finances. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The United States, recognizing and supporting these holdings, agrees with petitioner that costs that form 'an integral and essential element of the continuation of the business' are necessary expenses even though priority is not necessary to the continuation of the business. ”

“ Again, these fees are to be paid on all the lands located, which may fairly be construed to be all the lands ascertained to belong to the company under a grant, while the costs spoken of in the twenty-first section are the costs of selection, which can properly apply only to lands where a choice or option employing exercise of judgment has been used. Still, as these are the only costs or expenses which counsel on either side has been able to suggest as the costs of selecting the lands within the meaning of the statute, it is unsafe to say they are not the costs referred to. ”

“ I do not suppose the taxpayer corporation can itself legally practice law or medicine, but I would suppose if it needed legal service for its business or thought it good business to supply medical attention to injured or ailing employees, the cost would be a business deduction, even though the agent was doing what the taxpayer could not legally do for itself. ”

“ Interest is not costs in any sense, and, when allowed, it should be decreed as damages, and be added to the damages awarded in the District Court. 2. Costs and interest should never be blended in such a case, as it would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the amount to be paid by the stipulators for costs, if less than the full amount of the stipulation, or to separate the same from the amount to be paid by the sureties in the appeal-bond. ”

“ And from early times the legislature and the courts, in England and America, in order to put a check on unjust litigation, have not only, as a general rule, awarded costs to the party prevailing in a civil action, but have, not infrequently, required actual payment of costs, or security for their payment, from the plaintiff in a civil action, or even from the prosecutor in a criminal proceeding. ”

“ 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? ”

“ Whereas, the tremendous growth in civil litigation has burdened the American court system and has imposed high costs on American individuals, small businesses, industry, professionals, and government at all levels ”

“ Section 6155, supra, provides that the attorney's fees shall be taxed as costs, but it does not provide that the 12 per cent. penalty shall be taxed as costs. Therefore the amount in controversy was $3,360.' Evidently, the court concluded because the state statute directed that attorneys' fees should be treated as costs, they were costs within the removal statute. ”

“ Precisely the same rule prevails in the admiralty courts, and consequently the libellant has the right at any stage of the cause voluntarily to discontinue the same, and the only penalty to which he can legally be subjected, in the absence of any statutory regulation, except, perhaps, in prize cases, is the payment of the costs of the proceedings. ”

“ In taxing the costs in prize causes, where there are several claims, some of which are disposed of by a final decree of condemnation, while others are suspended by appeal, the practice is to tax the costs and expenses which have accrued, specially, upon each claim so disposed of, as a separate charge against the same, and to add thereto an average proportion of the general costs and expenses which have accrued in reference to all the claims in the cause. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And Treasury Regulations 77, Art. 221 (h) promulgated under the 1932 Act [2] defined 'net income * * * from the property' as used in § 114 (b) (3) so as to require 'development costs' of the kind here involved to be deducted from 'gross income from the property'. [3] The Board of Tax Appeals held that petitioner need not deduct these development expenditures in applying the 50 per cent limitation on depletion allowance (36 B.T.A. 1327) and the Circuit Court of Appeals reversed (5 Cir., 102 F.2d 596) . ”

“ The District Court was therefore right in allowing a recovery of the full amount of the bond.
In striking down so much of the judgment as allowed an attorney's fee the court below was persuaded that section 7811, which provides for an attorney's fee, authorized it only as costs to be taxed in the state court. As costs in the federal courts are regulated exclusively by R. S. §§ 823 and 824 (28 USCA §§ 571, 572) , the court concluded that other costs, authorized only by a state statute, could not be included in the judgment. See United States v. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the courts of common law, costs were not given either to plaintiff or defendant, although the damages given to a successful plaintiff might suffice to cover not only the loss sustained by the wrong done, but also the expense he had been put to in taking proceedings. The defendant in a baseless or vexatious action could not even recover his costs thus indirectly, and the indirect costs given to a plaintiff under the name of damages were often inadequate and uncertain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the final analysis the cost of attorney fees is so heavy that the amount which finally accrues in cases of accident is seriously curtailed before it reaches the beneficiary. These three considerations clearly suggest the lifting of this whole operation out of the courts and the sphere of legal disputation. And then there is a broader principle which must be recognized. There is no characteristic of our civilization so marked as the element of interdependence as between social units. ”

“ Some costs are the unavoidable consequences of a system of government which is required to proceed against its citizens in a public trial in an adversary proceeding. Yet I see no basis for saying that an accused must bear the costs incurred by the Government in its unsuccessful prosecution of him. Imposition of costs upon individuals who have been acquitted has long been eschewed by our courts. ”

“ When a private business is possessed and operated for public use, no reason appears to justify imposition of losses sustained on the person from whom the property was seized. This is conceptually distinct from the Government's obligation to pay fair compensation for property taken, although in cases raising the issue, the Government's profit and loss experience may well be one factor involved in computing reasonable compensation for a temporary taking. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The claimant has not received a dollar, either for what he did, or for what he expended, except the proceeds of the property which remained on his bands when the performance of the contract was stopped. Unless there is some artificial rule of law which has taken the place of natural justice in relation to the measure of damages, it would seem to be quite clear that the claimant ought at least to be made whole for his losses and expenditures. ”

“ The proceeding to ascertain the benefits or losses which will accrue to the owner of property when taken for public use, and thus the compensation to be made to him, is in the nature of an inquest on the part of the State, and is necessarily under her control. It is her duty to see that the estimates made are just, not merely to the individual whose property is taken, but to the public which is to pay for it. ”

“ What is or was a proper allowance is not a matter of law until after it has been fixed by the rate-regulating body. The courts can then apply that law, and, measuring what has been charged by what the Commission declares should have been charged, can award damages to the extent of the injuries occasioned by the payment of the allowance found to have been unreasonable and unlawful. ”