Plaintiffs? Motion to Tax Costs is denied.
The Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of proof.?? As noted by the Defendants, the cases upon which the motion is based, Textron v. National Union, and Slavin v. Fink, have been called into question by the Fourth District inCharton v. Harkey (2016) 247 Cal. App. 4th 730. The Court believes that the analysis in Charton v. Harkey is correct and that the unity of interest exception can no longer to be applied to determine who is the prevailing party for the purposes of costs.
Here, for the purposes of costs,? Defendant Masumi is the prevailing party against all three Plaintiffs, and Defendant GVM is the prevailing party as against Moder, as these Plaintiffs recovered no relief as to these Defendants, and are entitled to costs under CCP Section 1032(a)(4).? And, these costs must be allocated,? as to the Plaintiffs (Charton v. Harkey, pages 378-79)
However, the Court, cannot, as suggested by Plaintiffs,? make an across the board allocation (Charton v. Harkey, pages 744-45), the allocation must be as to specific costs, ?and must be based on the necessity and reasonableness of each of the costs, as to each Plaintiff,? as required by Section 1033.5(c) (Charton v. Harkey, pages 744-45 ). Thus, any request, as Plaintiffs make here, that only 2/3 of the costs be awarded, is denied on that basis, as it does not address the necessity and reasonableness of each of the items as to each Plaintiff.
With regard to the overall claim that the costs are not reasonable or necessary, it is Plaintiffs? burden to prove such (Ladas v. California State Auto. Assn., 19 Cal. App. 4th 761, 774). ?Plaintiffs have failed to meet that burden.? There are arguments made, other than the improper argument to tax 2/3 of the costs as unnecessary and unreasonable, as to the listed costs in the motion, but they are not supported by the reference to any evidence.? Plaintiffs failed to meet their burden of proof, and therefore the burden never shifted to Defendants to prove that the costs were actually necessary and reasonable as to each Plaintiff.
Defendants to give notice.