Mt. Shasta Power Corp. v. McArthur

MR. JUSTICE PLUMMER Delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This cause is before us upon an appeal from an order settling plaintiff’s cost bill and refusing to strike out certain items. The record shows that in an action tried in the superior court of the county of Shasta, both the plaintiff and the defendants were awarded their costs, and at the conclusion of the trial, both the plaintiff and the defendants filed their cost bills in which they set out as an item of costs the expense of one-half of the transcript of the testimony taken in the cause just referred to, which

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transcript was ordered by the court under the provisions of section 274 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The record shows that at the beginning of the trial the court ordered that an original transcript of the testimony be made by the reporter from day to day, and the expense thereof charged to the respective parties in equal proportions, to wit, at 10 cents a folio, being 20 cents a folio for the transcript ordered by the court. The record further shows that at the time of the making of the order just referred to the plaintiff and the defendants also ordered one copy each of the transcript, at a cost of 6V2 cents per folio. On the following day the record shows that the plaintiff desired two extra copies of the testimony, which copies the reporter agreed to furnish the plaintiff, as follows: One extra copy for 4 cents per folio and one extra copy for 3 cents per folio.

One-half of the total cost of the original transcript of the testimony ordered by the court amounted to the sum of $675.48. The plaintiff, and also the defendants, in their cost bills, set forth an item of cost in the sum above named, and costs were allowed the respective parties in the sum mentioned, for and on account of the original copy of the transcript of the testimony ordered by the court.

The contention is now made that under the third paragraph of section 274 of the Code of Civil Procedure the appellants should have paid only 4 cents per folio as their portion of the costs of the original copy ordered by the court. This contention is based upon the fact that after the court had ordered the original copy, and the parties hereto had each agreed to take a copy at 6% cents per folio, the plaintiff ordered two additional copies, and therefore five copies in all were made by the reporter, and only 8 cents per folio should have been charged for the original copy, and that the defendants have overpaid costs for the original copy in the sum of 6 cents per folio which should have been borne by the plaintiffs by reason of the fact that the plaintiffs obtained two extra copies at a reduced rate. The provision of the section relied upon reads as follows: “For transcription of one copy, 20 cents per one hundred words; for two copies made at one time, 15 cents each per one hundred words; for three copies made at one time, 11 cents each per one hundred words; for four-copies made at one time, 9 cents each per one hundred words; and for five