Sophia Wilansky v. Morton County
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
Sophia Wilansky appealed the district court’s award of more than $35,000 in costs to Morton County and several law-enforcement officers after her § 1983 suit was dismissed. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, holding that the challenged deposition and e-discovery costs were recoverable under 28 U.S.C. § 1920 and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in taxing them.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether 28 U.S.C. § 1920(4) allows a prevailing party to tax e-discovery costs that go beyond scanning or file-format conversion (e.g., costs for collecting, preserving, processing, hosting, indexing, and extracting electronically stored information).
Circuit Positions
Broad interpretation of § 1920(4) — allows taxation of costs for extracting, preserving, processing, and hosting ESI in addition to scanning/conversion when reasonably necessary.
Narrow interpretation of § 1920(4) — only costs for scanning or converting files constitute 'making copies'; costs for collecting, preserving, processing, searching, or hosting ESI are not recoverable.
Conflict Summary
The Eighth Circuit in this opinion approves taxing a broader range of e-discovery costs—including extraction, preservation, and hosting fees—so long as they are analogous to exemplification or copying. In contrast, the Third, Fourth, D.C., and Federal Circuits limit recovery to the digital equivalent of photocopying (scanning or converting files) and disallow costs incurred in collecting, preserving, processing, or hosting ESI.