Wampole v. Carnival Corporation

Summary

This Report and Recommendation addresses Carnival Corporation’s motion to tax costs after summary judgment was entered in its favor in a personal-injury maritime action. The court recommends denying a stay pending appeal and awarding Carnival $7,546.05 in taxable costs, consisting of $1,655.00 in service-of-process costs and $5,891.05 in deposition transcript costs.

Holdings

1. A pending appeal does not automatically deprive the district court of authority to decide a collateral motion to tax costs, and a stay was unwarranted because the motion involved routine costs, the record was complete, and Plaintiff showed neither case-specific prejudice nor a documented inability to pay.
2. Carnival was entitled to recover $1,655.00 in private process-server fees because the requested amounts did not exceed the applicable United States Marshal rate and the subpoenas were reasonably necessary to investigate medical history, causation, and damages placed at issue by Plaintiff.
3. Carnival was entitled to recover $5,891.05 in remaining deposition transcript costs because the transcripts were cited in summary-judgment briefing or were reasonably necessary to defend liability, causation, and damages at trial.
4. Expedited-transcript, condensed-transcript, and DepoSummary Pro charges totaling $1,374.10 were not taxable because Carnival did not show that they were necessarily obtained for use in the case rather than for counsel's convenience.
5. The four corporate-representative deposition charges were taxable because each invoice identified a copy of the transcript, no specific non-taxable charge was identified, and the transcripts were used in summary-judgment briefing.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the pending appeal required or justified staying resolution of Carnival's motion to tax costs.
2. Whether $1,655.00 in private process-server fees for subpoenas was taxable under 28 U.S.C. § 1920(1).
3. Whether the remaining deposition transcript costs were necessarily obtained for use in the case and taxable under 28 U.S.C. § 1920(2).
4. Whether expedited-transcript, condensed-transcript, and DepoSummary Pro charges were taxable convenience items.
5. Whether the corporate-representative deposition invoices provided sufficient detail to support taxation.

Disposition

other