In a morbid case, the Superior Court vacated appellant's judgment of sentence as it related to the costs for the assistant district attorneys' and county detectives' salaries only and affirmed in all other respects. Commonwealth v. Garzone, 2010 PA Super 57 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2010) Now, this was only for the salaries (or portion thereof). It was not for the other costs of prosecution (i.e. lab fees) which should be enumerated to you by your Lehigh County criminal lawyer.
So, why is it morbid? The Appellant had been a licensed funeral home director. Appellant's convictions arose from his participation in a scheme of illegal harvesting and sale of human body parts from corpses, as well as filing false forms seeking reimbursement from the government for providing funeral services for which he had already been paid. As part of appellant's sentence, the trial court directed him to pay $ 90,028, which was comprised of $ 84,723 for the salaries of the assistant district attorneys and county detectives, as well as $ 5,305 for the grand jury costs. On appeal, appellant contended that the trial court did not have the authority to order him to pay the expenses associated with the district attorneys' salaries, the county detectives' salaries, or the grand jury costs. The court agreed that it was error for the trial court to direct appellant to pay the assistant district attorneys' and county detectives' salaries as, given the plain meaning of 16 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 7708, as well as 16 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 1403, and an examination of case law, the salaries were not necessary expenses incurred by the district attorney's office in connection with appellant's prosecution.
It is a novel argument by the Commonwealth to save/get more money. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania has consistently followed the general, American rule that there can be no recovery of attorneys' fees from an adverse party, absent an express statutory authorization, a clear agreement by the parties or some other established exception. Certainly, as a matter of common parlance, attorneys' fees may be considered a form of cost or expense to a litigant. As noted, however, a statutory provision must be explicit in order to allow for the recovery of that particular form of expense.