Perez v. Illinois Department of Corrections

Full title: MARCOS PEREZ, Plaintiff, v. ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Defendant

Court: United States District Court, C.D. Illinois

Date published: Dec 22, 2005

Case No. 03-1386 (C.D. Ill. Dec. 22, 2005)

Opinion

Case No. 03-1386.

December 22, 2005

ORDER

JOE McDADE, Chief Judge

Before the Court is Defendant's Bill of Costs [Doc. # 31]. Defendant seeks $983.40 in court reporter fees and $666.60 in copying fees, for a total of $1650.00. Plaintiff has objected to the amount of the copying fees and Defendant has responded to those objections.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(d)(1) states: "costs, other than attorneys' fees shall be allowed as of course to the prevailing party unless the court otherwise directs." "Courts applying Rule 54(d) look first to the general taxation of costs statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1920." State of Illinois v. Sangamo Construction Co., 657 F.2d 855, 864 (7th Cir. 1981). That statute provides:

A judge . . . may tax as costs the following:

(1) Fees of the clerk and marshal;

(2) Fees of the court reporter for all or any part of the stenographic transcript necessarily obtained for use in the case;

(3) Fees and disbursements for printing and witnesses;

(4) Fees for exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for use in the case;

(5) Docket fees under section 1923 of this title;

(6) Compensation of court appointed experts, compensation of interpreters, and salaries, fees, expenses and costs of special interpretation services under section 1828 of this title.

A bill of costs shall be filed in the case and, upon allowance, included in the judgment or decree.

28 U.S.C. § 1920. "In order for the district court to award costs to the prevailing party, the court must determine that the expenses are [1] allowable cost items and [2] that the costs are reasonable, both in amount and necessity to the litigation."Commercial Credit Equipment Corp. v. Stamps, 920 F.2d 1361, 1367 (7th Cir. 1990).

Plaintiff asserts that Defendant has not met its burden of showing that the photocopied items were necessary or that they were actually copied. In response, Defendant asserts that the copying fees were for 4,444 copies of discovery documents that were supplied to Plaintiff at a cost of $0.015 per page (as attested to in an affidavit attached to Defendant's Bill of Costs). The Court finds that these costs are reasonable.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that costs in the amount of $1,650.00 are to be taxed against Plaintiff in favor of Defendant.