Travelers Property Casualty Company of America v. Netherlands Insurance Company
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:21-cv-06061
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Travelers Property Casualty v. Netherlands Insurance, Judge Engelmayer entered judgment for Netherlands, awarded taxable costs, and closed the case.
Travelers Property Casualty Company of America and Netherlands Insurance Company; the judgment also concerns the stated insurance duties relating to J.T. Magen, Mayer Brown, and 1221 Holdings.
What happened
Travelers Property Casualty Company of America v. Netherlands Insurance Company involved Travelers’s and Netherlands’s competing requests for summary judgment concerning insurance duties in an underlying personal-injury state-court action.
The court had previously denied Travelers’s partial motion and granted Netherlands’s motion, declaring that Netherlands owed J.T. Magen, Mayer Brown, or 1221 Holdings no duty to defend or indemnify. Netherlands then clarified that it sought litigation costs other than attorney’s fees.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer directed Netherlands to submit its bill of taxable costs after final judgment, directed the Clerk to enter final judgment granting Netherlands’s declaration and taxable costs, and ordered the case closed.
The detailed version
- Travelers Property Casualty Company of America v. Netherlands Insurance Company · No. 1:21-cv-06061
- Paul Engelmayer
- Mar. 1, 2023
Background
The court had issued an earlier opinion and order on March 1, 2023. That ruling denied Travelers’s partial motion for summary judgment and granted Netherlands’s cross-motion for summary judgment. The earlier ruling declared that Netherlands did not owe J.T. Magen, Mayer Brown, or 1221 Holdings a duty to defend or a duty to indemnify in the underlying personal-injury state-court action.
The court had asked Netherlands to clarify its request for “costs and disbursements.” Netherlands responded that it was not seeking attorney’s fees, but was seeking other costs under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d)(1).
Costs
Rule 54(d)(1) generally creates a presumption that the prevailing party should receive costs other than attorney’s fees, unless a federal statute, rule, or court order provides otherwise. The court explained that recoverable costs are generally limited to the categories listed in 28 U.S.C. § 1920, including clerk and marshal fees, necessary transcript fees, printing and witness expenses, necessary copying and exemplification expenses, certain docket fees, and compensation for court-appointed experts and interpreters.
The court determined that Netherlands was the prevailing party and therefore was entitled to taxable costs. Under the Southern District of New York’s Local Rule 54.1, Netherlands was directed to submit a bill of costs to the Clerk within 30 days after entry of final judgment, or within 30 days after the final disposition of any appeal by Travelers. After the Clerk awards costs, either party will have seven days to appeal that award to the court.
Disposition
The Clerk was directed to enter final judgment granting Netherlands’s cross-motion for summary judgment and the declaration that Netherlands does not owe J.T. Magen, Mayer Brown, or 1221 Holdings a duty to defend or indemnify in the underlying action. The Clerk was also directed to grant Netherlands taxable costs and close the case. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.