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387 F.2d 716

Docket No. 24223.

Miles v. Dickson

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Dec. 19, 1967.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1967-12-19

4 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the plaintiffs' attorneys acted in good faith, upon written authorization from their clients” and”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Amlong & Amlong, P.A. v. Denny's, Inc.

Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1927

Relies on Miles v. Dickson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1967-12-19

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently July 2006

16 federal appellate · 1 state decisions

11019671970198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*717William M. Kunstler, New York City, Morton Stavis, Newark, N. J., Vernon Z. Crawford, Mobile, Ala., for appellants.

¶2J. E. Wilkinson, Jr., of Wilkinson, Wilkinson & Russell, Selma, Ala., for appellee, Fred Holladay.

¶3Frank H. Hawthorne and Martin, Balch, Bingham, Hawthorne & Williams, Montgomery, Ala., for appellees Todd Meadows and E. R. Meadows.

¶4Edgar A. Stewart, Selma, Ala., James Garrett, R. L. Ingalls, John P. Kohn, Evans Hinson, of Hinson & Hamilton, Montgomery, Ala., for other appellees.

¶5Before RIVES, GOLDBERG and DYER, Circuit Judges.

¶6PER CURIAM:

¶7Pursuant to a memorandum opinion reported in 40 F.R.D. 386-391, the district court rendered summary judgment for the defendants, and taxed the court costs against the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

¶8The voluminous record and the many depositions convince us that the district court was clearly correct in concluding that there was no genuine issue as to any material fact and that each of the defendants was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56, Fed.R.Civ.P.

¶9We are equally convinced that the plaintiffs’ attorneys acted in good faith, upon written authorization from their clients, and that the taxation of the court costs against the plaintiffs’ attorneys was erroneous. To assess the costs against the attorneys without notice and a hearing was, of course, wrong. We do not, however, base our ruling on that procedural ground. Nor do we rule on whether the court had power, either inherent or under the statute, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1927, to require the attorneys personally to pay the court costs. We simply hold that the facts and circumstances do not present such an extreme case as would permit the court to tax the costs against the attorneys.

¶10That part of the judgment which taxes costs is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. In all other respects, the judgment is affirmed. The costs of appeal are taxed against the appellants.

¶11Affirmed in part and reversed in part and remanded.

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