Oregon Mesabi Corporation v. C. D. Johnson Lumber Corp.

Appellant seeks to recover as costs on his appeals in these cases (a) the expenditure for his briefs and (b) a reasonable attor-mey’s fee.

(a) A rule of the Supreme Court of Oregon allows the cost of printed briefs not exceeding $1.25 a page in all appeals. Appellant claims the Conformity Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 724 , requires us to make the ■same allowance. There is no merit in this contention. The law of this forum prevails as to such general cost provisions. Henkel v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry Co., 284 U. S. 444 , 52 S.Ct. 223 , 76 L.Ed 386. It does not include the cost of briefs on appeal.

(b) Section 12-410, Oregon Compiled Statutes Annotated, provides that:

Appellant claims that since the statute specifically allows costs in a condemnation proceeding, such a fee should be allowed by this court. The law of Oregon as appearing in Lewis v. Continental Casualty Co., 135 Or. 170, 173 , 295 P. 450 , involving an analogous Oregon statute specially allowing attorneys’ fees as costs in insurance cases is to the contrary. There as here the Oregon Laws of 1930, § 46-134, provided for attorneys’ fees to be determined at the trial. It was held that they were allowable only in the lower…