Free Bill of Costs - Obj/Ans/Resp - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

1 Jay A. Zweig (011153) Mark A. Fuller (012149) 2 Melissa R. Berren (020993) GALLAGHER & KENNEDY, P.A. 2575 E. Camelback Road, Suite 1100 3 Phoenix, Arizona 85016-9225 4 (602) 530-8407 Attorneys for Defendants 5 6 7 8
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF ARIZONA Matthew Shaffer, Plaintiff, vs. No. CIV-03-2344-PHX-FJM DEFENDANTS' OBJECTION TO PLAINTIFF'S BILL OF COSTS

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State of Arizona Citizens Clean Election 12 Commission; Colleen Connor and Chad Jacobs, husband and wife; and Jessica 13 Funkhouser and Lindy Funkhouser, husband and wife; John Does I-X; Jane Does I-X, 14 Defendants. 15 16 17 Defendants object to plaintiff's Bill of Costs as follows: 1. Plaintiff has requested that the clerk tax as costs fees for service of process

18 (see Exhibit B, attached to plaintiff's Bill of Costs). Defendants object to taxing the fees 19 for service of process as costs with respect to all witnesses that plaintiff did not call at 20 trial. This includes the costs for serving process on Gene Lemon ($87.40), Colleen 21 Connor ($80.20), Jessica Funkhouser ($26.00), and Debi Tobin ($77.00). 22
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Local Rule 54.1(e)(2) of the Rules of Practice of the United States District

2 Court for the District of Arizona provides that "the originals of transcripts of trials or 3 matters prior or subsequent to trial" is taxable. LRCiv 54.1(e)(2) (emphasis added). 4 Under the rule, copies of transcripts are not taxable. Local Rule 54.1(e)(3) allows as a 5 taxable cost a reporter's charge for the original deposition and copy, but not for multiple 6 copies. Exhibit C of plaintiff's Bill of Costs. In Exhibit C to plaintiff's Bill of Costs, 7 plaintiff lists several nontaxable costs. These are: 8 a. Video copies re: Jessica Funkhouser Deposition (4 at $22 each,

9 totaling $88.00). At an additional total cost of $480.00, plaintiff also ordered four 10 "Legal: Safety Tap" and four "legal: DVD," which are presumably related to these four 11 copies and which are not included under the rules as taxable costs. 12 b. Plaintiff also listed as a taxable cost three each of "Legal: DVD,"

13 "Legal: Safety Tap," and "Legal: Tape Mate" related to the deposition of Rebecca 14 Hecksel. This total cost of $426.00 is not a taxable cost under the rule. 15 c. Plaintiff listed as a taxable cost six each of "Legal: DVD," "Legal:

16 Video Tap" and "Legal: Safety Tap" related to the deposition of Colleen Connor, at a 17 total cost of $752.00, which is not a taxable cost under the rule. Plaintiff also ordered 18 "O&1," presumably meaning "Original and 1 Copy" of both volumes the transcript of 19 Colleen Connor's deposition (totaling $2,114.00), as well as a Miniscript ($25) and 20 ASCII file ($15) of Volume II, Exhibits. Plaintiff also erroneously included as a taxable 21 cost the Exhibits ($38.85), E-Tran ($45), and Binding & Postage ($15) of Volume I, and 22
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1 the binding and delivery fee of $25.00 for Volume II. The "O&1" cost is not broken 2 down into separate costs. Half of that cost is $1057. The total of $1,972.85 is not a 3 taxable cost. 4 d. Plaintiff listed as a taxable cost eight units of "Legal" Editing No"

5 and one "Dup Video: DVD" related to the deposition of Colleen Connor. This $775.00 is 6 not a taxable cost under the rule. 7 e. Plaintiff listed as a taxable cost a certified copy, not original, of

8 Volumes I and II of the deposition of Matthew Shaffer. The cost listed by plaintiff 9 included the binding of the copies, delivery, condensed transcript, and ASCII, which are 10 also not taxable costs. The total cost of $1,168.95 is not a taxable cost. 11 f. Plaintiff included as a taxable cost the total cost of both an original

12 and one copy of the transcript of Gene Lemon's deposition. Half of this cost, $254, is not 13 a taxable cost. Plaintiff included as taxable costs the late fees of $10.66, and the binding 14 for payment of this transcript. 15 3. Plaintiff ordered defendant's opening statement on an expedited basis, and

16 included the total cost of $88.00 as a taxable cost. The rules do not provided for the 17 additional costs associated with expedited production of transcripts. 18 4. Plaintiff listed $220 as taxable costs of the fees for witnesses. In Exhibit D

19 to plaintiff's Bill of Costs, $42.60 of this was attributed to Debi Tobin, whom plaintiff 20 did not call at trial. Another $47.65 was attributed to Jessica Funkhouser, but it is 21 defendants' understanding that Ms. Funkhouser refused this amount and the check was 22
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1 not cashed. Therefore, $90.25 of the costs listed as Fees for Witnesses is not a taxable 2 cost. 3 5. Plaintiff provided no exhibit validating his inclusion of $38.56 for fees for

4 exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for use in the case. FRCiv 5 54.1(a) provides that, "where available, documentation of requested costs in all categories 6 must be attached." 7 Defendants respectfully request that the Clerk exclude from taxing all of the

8 aforementioned amounts as costs. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 COPY of the foregoing electronically transmitted via the U.S. District Court 17 Electronic Case Filing system this 21st day of October, 2005 to: 18 Richard J. Harris, Esq. 19 Richard J. Harris Law Offices, P.C. 4445 E. Holmes Avenue, Suite 106 Mesa, Arizona 85206-3398 20 Co-Counsel for Plaintiff 21 22
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RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this 21st day of October, 2005. GALLAGHER & KENNEDY, P.A. By: s/Jay A. Zweig______________ Jay A. Zweig Mark A. Fuller Melissa R. Berren 2575 E. Camelback Road, Suite 1100 Phoenix, Arizona 85016-9225 Attorneys for Defendants

1 David C. Larkin, Esq. David C. Larkin, P.C. 2 4645 S. Lakeshore Drive, Suite 6 Tempe, Arizona 85282-3747 3 Co-Counsel for Plaintiff 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
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568-0140/1306162

s/Dawn Sylvester_________