Lane v. Pacific Greyhound Lines

GIBSON, C. J.

This court reversed a judgment for defendants in

Lane

v.

Pacific Greyhound Lines,

26 Cal.2d 575 [160 P.2d 21], and plaintiffs appeal from certain orders in the proceedings taxing costs on the prior appeal.

Plaintiffs filed their bill for costs on appeal the day following the filing of the remittitur in

Lane

v.

Pacific Greyhound Lines, supra,

26 Cal.2d 575. The bill, in addition to a charge of $100 for the cost of printing briefs on appeal, included, as separate items, charges for printing plaintiffs’ petition for hearing in the Supreme Court, the opinion of the District Court of Appeal as a part of such petition, and the plaintiffs’ answer to defendants’ petition for rehearing in the Supreme Court. Upon receipt of this bill defendants’ attorney wrote a letter to plaintiffs questioning the three items, and four days after the time provided for making objections to such a bill had expired (Code Civ. Proc., § 1034), defendants filed a motion to tax costs, seeking to eliminate those charges. Then, 17 days later, defendants filed a motion under section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure for relief from default in failing to file objections on time and for permission to file a second motion. A showing was made by affidavit that the delay was caused by a mistake made by an inexperienced employee of defendants’ attorney in calendaring the due date of the motion to tax. Thereafter, plaintiffs moved to strike the first motion to tax costs which had been filed four days late. At the hearing on defendants’ motion for relief from default and plaintiffs’ motion to strike, the court granted the defendants’ motion and denied that of plaintiffs. Upon the hearing of the objections to the cost bill on their merits, the court struck the three items in excess of $100 for the cost of printing briefs.

[916]

Plaintiffs appealed from these three orders: (1) the order refusing to strike the motion to tax costs on appeal, (2) the order granting relief from default and permitting defendants to file a second motion to tax costs on appeal, and (3) the order taxing costs on appeal.