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Schaub v. Wilson12/21/1998
against the State of Wyoming, its officers or agencies, shall be imposed only to the extent permitted by law.
W.R.C.P. 54(d). Under these statutory and rule provisions, an award of costs is a matter within the discretion of the trial court. In Abraham v. Andrews Trucking Co., 893 P.2d 1156, 1158 (Wyo. 1995), we said:
The award of costs pursuant to W.R.C.P. 54(d) rests within the sound discretion of the district court. Hashimoto v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 767 P.2d 158, 168 (Wyo. 1989). "Abuse of discretion occurs when a court exceeds the bounds of reason or commits an error of law." Combs v. Sherry-Combs, 865 P.2d 50, 55 (Wyo. 1993).
Earlier decisions of this court support the proposition that an award of costs is a matter within the discretion of the trial court. E.g., Snodgrass v. Rissler & McMurry Co., 903 P.2d 1015, 1018 (Wyo. 1995); Carlson v. Carlson, 888 P.2d 210, 216 (Wyo. 1995); Big-O Tires , Inc. v. Santini, 838 P.2d 1169, 1176 (Wyo. 1992); Coulthard v. Cossairt, 803 P.2d 86, 93 (Wyo. 1990); and Stauffer Chemical Co. v. Curry, 778 P.2d 1083, 1105 (Wyo. 1989).
Schaub argues that the abuse of discretion in this instance is in the failure to recognize her as the prevailing party. We addressed the definition of a prevailing party in the context of an offer of judgment in Crawford v. Amadio, 932 P.2d 1288, 1292 (Wyo. 1997), where we said:
Amadio relied upon Stamp v. Hagerman, 181 Mich. App. 332, 448 N.W.2d 849, 851 (1989). In Stamp, the Michigan Court of Appeals addressed the question of awarding costs to a plaintiff as a prevailing party when the "adjusted verdict" was less than the "average offer" to stipulate to a judgment. The court said:
" party should not be deemed the prevailing party for purposes of taxing costs unless the party improves his or her position by the litigation.* * * e agree that a showing of improved position is a minimal standard for taxing costs. To hold otherwise would encourage unnecessary litigation."
Stamp, 448 N.W.2d at 851.
In this case, Schaub did not improve her position in the litigation. On the other hand, Wilson did improve his position substantially over the result indicated by the entry of default. Under the circumstances, Wilson must be regarded as the prevailing party in this instance. Like the trial court, we cannot resist quoting from the Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Motion for Award of Costs:
It is certainly a very unusual situation where a Defendant defaulted on a case, admitted liability, admitted that an award of some damages is appropriate and still been awarded a judgment including costs.
While this case may be unusual, we discern no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court in awarding costs to Wilson under the circumstances.
The trial court is affirmed in all respects.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wyoming Personal Injury Attorneys
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