costs
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 290 U.S. 199 - Missouri State Life Insurance v. Jones · 1933Most cited · 331 citing opinions
the mere declaration of the state statute could not alter the true nature of the obligation... The amount so demanded became part of the matter put in controversy by the complaint, and not mere 'costs' excluded from the reckoning by the jurisdictional and removal statutes
How the Supreme Court has restated “costs”
Each Supreme Court definition of “costs,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “costs”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “costs” — 843 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1928–1933
- ORIGINAL
traditional, arbitrary and small fees of court officers, attorneys' docket fees and the like, allowed to counsel by R. S. §§ 823, 824
ordinary sense
When used in a judgment or decree without qualification, the word 'costs' means the amounts taxable as such under Acts of Congress, rules promulgated by its authority and practice established consistently with governing enactments.