Double Or Treble Costs

Double or treble costs have been frequently granted by statute, e.g., to successful defendants in actions for irregular distress, by the (English) Distress for Rent Act, 1737 (11 Geo. 2, c. 19), s. 20. The true mode of estimating the amount of double costs was first to allow the successful party the single costs, including the expenses of witnesses, counsel's fees, etc., and then allow him one-half of the amount of the single costs, without deducting counsel's fees, etc. Treble costs consisted of the single costs, half the single costs, and half of that half. But the public statutes prior to 1842 which gave these costs were repealed by the (English) Limitations of Actions and Costs Act, 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 97), popularly called 'Pollock's Act,' which enacted that the successful party should be entitled only to full and reasonable costs, to be taxed by the proper officer-an enactment repealed in its turn by the (English) Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893 (see that title).