In a recent case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge Legrome Davis upheld court costs of $510,137 for pretrial discovery, most of which involved e-discovery. In doing so, Davis staked out new areas of accepted costs for e-discovery that should be a guide for future litigation.
In the Aspartame Antitrust Litigation, plaintiffs filed separate complaints against three corporate defendants in class action suits alleging a horizontal conspiracy regarding setting the price for an artificial sweetener. The court dismissed the complaints as being barred by the four-year statute of limitations. After appeals were denied, the defendants, who were the prevailing parties, filed for court costs pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d), and Local Civil Rule 54.1. The clerk assessed costs of $576,058 against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs appealed the clerk’s order to the District Court. After briefing by the parties, the court reduced the total costs to be paid to the three prevailing defendants to $510,137. (See the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Oct. 5 opinion in In re Aspartame Antitrust Litigation, 06-cv-1732.)
