Supervisors of Onondaga v. Briggs

By the Court, Jewett, J.

At common law neither party recovered costs against the other. The right to costs is created by statute and wholly depends upon it, and the right does not become fixed until the termination of the suit. The recovery of costs must be controlled, as to items and the rate of compensation, by the statutes in force at the time the right to costs accrues, or at the time of taxation. It is competent for the legislature, at any time during the progress of a suit, to create an allowance for services not before provided for, and to increase or diminish, or wholly abolish such…