Plaintiff Did Not Meet His Burden In Showing The Expenses Were Unnecessary/Unreasonable.
In Anton v. Barbich Hooper King Dill Hoffman Accountancy Corp., Case Nos. F073713/F074644 (5th Dist. Oct. 20, 2020) (unpublished), plaintiff lost a malpractice case brought against accountant defendants (mainly for accounting expert testimony in a litigation involving division of fees/costs) on summary judgment based on a lack of causation. (The summary judgment was affirmed on the merits, with the appellate court providing a nice discussion of causation in “settle and sue” malpractice cases.). The trial judge denied plaintiff’s motion to tax costs ($149,106.50 for eight expert witnesses) claimed by the defense. The appellate court affirmed under the abuse of discretion/compelled findings standards, because there was no uncontradicted, dispositive testimony by plaintiff showing why the main expert’s testimony was not proper rebuttal testimony necessary and reasonable in this type of case.