Fairmont Creamery Co. v. Minnesota, 275 U.S. 70 (1927)

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Fairmont Creamery Co. v. Minnesota

No. 725, October Term, 1926

Submitted October 17, 1927
Decided November 21, 1927
275 U.S. 70

MOTION TO RETAX COSTS

Syllabus

1. A clause imposing costs inserted in a final judgment of this Court by the clerk and approved by the Justice who wrote the opinion disposing of the case is the act of the Court, not merely of the clerk, and is beyond the power of the Court to recall after expiration of the term. So held where no petition for rehearing was made within the 40 days allowed by Rule 30. P. 72.

2. As a party to litigation in this Court, a state is not immune to costs in virtue of its sovereignty. P. 73.

3. A rule as to the awarding and division of costs is within the inherent authority of this Court as to all litigants before it except the United States. P. 74.

4. Costs may be awarded against states, as litigants before this Court, in criminal as well a civil cases. Rule 29, § 3; cf. Jud. Code § 24, United States v. Gaines, 131 U.S. Appendix clxix, distinguished. P. 75

This was a motion by the state to retax, i.e., to eliminate, the costs allowed against it in this Court. The allowance was included in a judgment reversing a conviction of the Creamery Company in a state prosecution based on a statute which the Court found unconstitutional. 274 U.S. 1.