In Re: MYLAN N.V. SECURITIES LITIGATION

Background

Defendants prevailed in this securities-fraud class action and sought costs under 28 U.S.C. § 1920 and Local Civil Rule 54.1. After withdrawing several requested items, defendants sought $430,165.61 for deposition-related expenses, demonstrative exhibits, and document conversion and production. Plaintiffs objected to the request. The court granted plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a surreply because it helped evaluate apparently conflicting declarations from defendants.

Affidavit and Equitable Objections

The court rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the entire request should be denied because defendants’ corrected bill of costs did not identify the necessity of each item in detail. The court held that defendants’ sworn declaration, submitted in the form prescribed by the Administrative Office, satisfied the affidavit requirement under § 1924 and Local Rule 54.1. That ruling did not establish that every requested item was taxable.

The court also rejected plaintiffs’ request to deny all costs for equitable reasons. It found no misconduct by defendants and no showing that the losing parties were indigent. The court further held that the importance and difficulty of the case, plaintiffs’ earlier success against dispositive motions, and the potential effect on class representatives did not justify departing from the ordinary practice of awarding allowable costs to a prevailing party.

Deposition Costs

The court determined that defendants could recover $42,062.05 in deposition-related costs. Taxable categories were:

- Certified transcripts: $37,081.25. - Surcharges: $1,385.95. - Production and processing: $192.00. - Linked exhibits: $2,525.35. - Expedited delivery: $877.50.

The court found the surcharges sufficiently explained as fees for reporters with specialized expertise or for extended deposition hours. It found production and processing costs sufficiently connected to generating and distributing the transcripts. It allowed expedited delivery because defendants represented that it was needed to respond urgently to plaintiffs’ class-certification motion, and plaintiffs did not challenge that explanation.

The court rejected the following deposition-related categories as not taxable: litigation packages, reporter attendance, virtual participants, virtual exhibit packages, exhibit sharing, electronic delivery and handling, and deposition video costs. The court found the litigation-package description too vague; reporter appearance fees not taxable under district precedent; and the virtual, exhibit-sharing, and electronic-delivery charges insufficiently supported or associated with convenience rather than necessary transcript or copying costs. It also rejected video costs because defendants did not specifically explain why the parties reasonably expected to use the video testimony at trial.

Demonstrative-Exhibit Costs

Defendants sought $15,418.75 for demonstrative exhibits used at the summary-judgment hearing. Because plaintiffs did not object to taxing those costs, the court allowed the full amount.

Document Conversion and Production Costs

Defendants sought $295,358.79 for file conversion and production services, calculated using a hypothetical rate of $0.03 per page for 9.84 million pages. The court found that request too speculative. The proposed rate was not based on an invoice Mylan paid or an industry survey, and defendants’ declarations differed about which services the rate covered. The court instead used plaintiffs’ proposed rate of $0.005 per page, supported by a declaration about volume discounts.

The court also found it unclear which documents had been converted for this case and which had been converted for other litigation. Because taxable conversion costs could cover only documents actually produced in this litigation, the court reduced the page count by 50 percent, to 4.92 million pages. At $0.005 per page, the allowable document-conversion and production costs were $24,600.

Disposition

The court sustained plaintiffs’ objections to the Corrected Bill of Costs in part and overruled them in part. It directed the Clerk of Court to tax costs totaling $82,080.80: $42,062.05 for deposition-related costs, $15,418.75 for demonstrative exhibits, and $24,600 for document conversion and production. The court also directed the Clerk to close the motion at ECF No. 478.