Taxing Costs

The act by which it is ascertained to what costs a party is entitled.

It is a rule that the jury must assess the damages and costs separately, so that it may appear to the court that the costs were not considered, in the damages; and when the jury give costs in an amount insufficient to answer the costs of the suit, the plaintiff may pray that the officer may tax the costs, and such taxation is inserted in the judgment: this is said to be done ex assensu of the plaintiff, because at his prayer. The costs are taxed in the first instance, by the prothonotary or clerk of the court. A bill of costs having been once submitted to such an officer for taxation, cannot be withdrawn from him and referred to another.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.