Free Proposed Bill of Costs - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

Case 1:01-cv-02199-MSK-MEH

Document 463-2

Filed 04/10/2007

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Case No. 01-cv-02199-MSK-MEH MICHAEL E. CLAWSON and JARED L. DILLON, Plaintiffs, v. MOUNTAIN COAL COMPANY, L.L.C., ARCH WESTERN RESOURCES, L.L.C., and ARCH COAL, INC., Defendants.

STATEMENT OF COSTS PURSUANT TO § 1920 FOR PLAINTIFF CLAWSON

CERTIFICATE OF CONFERRAL A reasonable effort has been made, in a conference with the opposing counsel, to resolve disputes regarding these costs. Defense counsel has advised that defendants object to the relief sought. STATEMENT EXPLAINING COSTS The prevailing plaintiff, Michael Clawson, has taken measures to assure that costs for his case were only taken into account in this Bill of Costs. Clawson is not seeking costs of the three unsuccessful plaintiffs which are unrelated to him prevailing at trial. Of the other three plaintiffs, two were dismissed before trial, John Bartlett and Thomas Richards, one plaintiff, Jarrod Dillon, went to trial but was ultimately unsuccessful.1 Costs on this case were broken down by the plaintiff where that cost was directly, and solely, related to that particular plaintiff's case. However, costs that were related to overall success of all the plaintiffs were shared equally among the plaintiffs. While these costs were divided among the plaintiffs equally, these costs
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The jury did render a verdict in favor of Dillon at trial. The jury found Dillon was regarded as disabled by the defendants, was qualified for the position he held or desired, and the defendants failed to accommodate and wrongfully terminated Dillon. In so finding, the jury awarded $108,000.00 in economic damages and $250,000.00 in compensatory damages.

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Case 1:01-cv-02199-MSK-MEH

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Filed 04/10/2007

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were not specific to any one plaintiff and would have been necessary be there one plaintiff or ten plaintiffs in this case. Shared Costs Many of the costs of this case were shared costs unrelated to a specific plaintiff, but necessary for anyone plaintiff to ultimately succeed at trial. The plaintiffs were to share in these costs by equally dividing the total amount of any specific cost, related to the case of all plaintiffs, by the number of plaintiffs in the case. However, many of these costs were fixed costs irrespective of the number of plaintiffs in the case. These costs would have been the same no matter if there were one or ten plaintiffs. For this reason, the total amount of costs should be charged to defendants. The best example of this was in the fees for transcription of depositions, particularly depositions of the management employees of the defendants. The costs for these deposition transcriptions would have been the same regardless of the amount of plaintiffs. If the prevailing plaintiff had brought this case on his own he would have had to depose these management employees. The sole reason the costs are broken down equally between all of the plaintiffs was to share the cost burden among all the plaintiffs, keeping down the costs for all plaintiffs. But in the end the total cost of the deposition was necessary to the success of the prevailing plaintiff. The prevailing plaintiff would have entered into this cost if he had been the sole plaintiff in the case. Fees of the Clerk and Service and Summons Fees The fees of the clerk and service and summons fees in this case are irrespective of the number of plaintiffs in the case. The prevailing plaintiff, Mike Clawson, would have incurred the same filing fees if he were the only plaintiff in the case. Therefore, plaintiff is entitled to the entire amount of the fees of the clerk and service and summons fees. Court Reporter Fees The fees of court reporters for all transcripts necessarily obtained in the case are irrespective of the number of plaintiffs in the case. The depositions of defendants would have been taken if the prevailing plaintiff was the only plaintiff in the case. These depositions were crucial in gathering the facts of the case and at trial. The other plaintiffs were also witnesses at trial, whose testimony was critical for the success of Clawson in his case. These depositions were taken at the request of the defendants. Plaintiff has eliminated certain court reporter fees that were not related to the prevailing plaintiff's case, such as the depositions of the unsuccessful plaintiffs' wives and physicians who did not treat or examine the prevailing plaintiff. Therefore, plaintiff is entitled to the entire amount of the fees of court reporters plaintiff requests.

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Case 1:01-cv-02199-MSK-MEH

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Filed 04/10/2007

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Witness Fees The witness fees are irrespective of the number of plaintiffs in the case. The same witnesses would have been called if the prevailing plaintiff was the only plaintiff in the case. Prevailing plaintiff has deleted the witness fees of all witness not called at trial. The majority of the witnesses in this case were employees of the defendants. All of the witnesses called provided testimony that was critical to Clawson's success at trial. Therefore, plaintiff is entitled to the entire amount of the witness fees that plaintiff requests. Outside Copy Costs The fees for exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for use in this case are irrespective of the number of plaintiffs. This case involved over 700 exhibits due to the need for medical reports and employer documents. It was necessary to make copies of these reports for use at trial, in settlement conferences, in depositions, and in motions and pleadings. This case went on for over seven years and multiple amounts of copies were necessary throughout this litigation to provide third parties, such as the court, physicians, mediators, etc, with a copy of the documents. Included in these outside copies are copies of medical records particular to Clawson and Colorado Department of Labor and Employment records. All unsuccessful plaintiffs' costs for medical records and Colorado Department of Labor and Employment records have been excluded from this request for costs. Only the prevailing plaintiff's costs for these medical and labor records have been requested. All of these outside copies were necessary for Clawson's overall success through the litigation process. Therefore, plaintiff is entitled to the entire amount of the fees for exemplification and copies of papers necessarily obtained for use in this case that plaintiff requests. Costs Incident to Taking of Depositions The expert witness fees charged by defendants' experts, Pat Anctil and Jerome Darnell, were costs incident to the taking of deposition pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(4)(C). CONCLUSION In the end the prevailing plaintiff is requesting in this Bill of Costs the cost that are particular, such as medical reports, to his successful case and the costs that were critical to the success of the case against defendants, but not related to a particular plaintiff, such as transcription fees. It would be impossible to break down what portion of any fee was particular to the prevailing plaintiff or the unsuccessful plaintiffs, when these same fees would be necessary regardless of the number of plaintiffs in the litigation. The number of plaintiffs, and

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Case 1:01-cv-02199-MSK-MEH

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Filed 04/10/2007

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the equal allocation of case costs, helped only to lessen the financial burden of all the plaintiffs, but the increased number plaintiffs did not increase the costs of the litigation. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this 10th day of April, 2007.

s/J. Keith Killian J. Keith Killian Damon Davis Killian, Guthro & Jensen, P.C. 225 N. 5th Street Grand Junction, CO 81501 Telephone: (970) 241-0707 FAX: (970) 242-8375 E-mail: [email protected] Attorney for Plaintiffs Michael E. Clawson and Jared L. Dillon

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Case 1:01-cv-02199-MSK-MEH

Document 463-2

Filed 04/10/2007

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRIT OF COLORADO CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE (CM/ECF) I hereby certify that on April 10, 2007, I electronically filed the foregoing with the Clerk of Court using the CM/ECF system, which will send notification of such filing to the following e-mail addresses: [email protected] [email protected] and, I hereby certify that I have mailed or served the document or paper to the following non CM/ECF participants in the manner (mail, hand-delivery, etc.) indicated by the non-participant's name: Mr. Michael Clawson 38506 Back River Road Paonia, CO 81428 Mr. Jared Dillon 35404 Back River Road Hotchkiss, CO 81419 Mail

Mail

s/J. Keith Killian J. Keith Killian Attorney for Plaintiffs Killian, Guthro & Jensen, P.C. 225 N. 5th Street Grand Junction, CO 81501 Telephone: (970) 241-0707 Fax: (970) 242-8375 [email protected]

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