Clouse v. Southern Methodist University: Affirming the Award of Costs

This episode discusses a judicial opinion from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals addressing a dispute over litigation costs following a lawsuit against Southern Methodist University regarding student-athlete injuries. The court affirmed that the university was the prevailing party because it successfully dismissed the claims of eight out of nine plaintiffs based on a statute of limitations bar. Although the plaintiffs argued that their limited resources and the complexity of Title IX should exempt them from paying, the court found they failed to overcome the strong presumption that losing parties must reimburse certain expenses. Crucially, the ruling establishes that a defendant can recover costs for both written transcripts and video recordings of depositions if they are deemed necessary for trial preparation. The court ultimately upheld an award of over $184,000, confirming that the district court properly vetted the invoices for allowable expenses like scanning and copying.