Terms Used In Wisconsin Statutes 814.14

  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: includes all partnerships, associations and bodies politic or corporate. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Personal representative: means a person, however denominated, who is authorized to administer a decedent's estate. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • State: when applied to states of the United States, includes the District of Columbia, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the several territories organized by Congress. See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed; "year" alone means "year of our Lord". See Wisconsin Statutes 990.01
   (1)   
      (a)    Except as provided in par. (b) or unless otherwise specifically provided in any action or proceeding prosecuted or defended in any court in this state by a personal representative, guardian ad litem, trustee of an express trust, general guardian or person expressly authorized by statute, costs may be recovered as in an action by or against a person prosecuting or defending in the person’s own right.
      (b)    Except in cases in which the plaintiff or defendant is guilty of mismanagement or bad faith in the action, proceeding, or defense of the action, costs recovered under par. (a) shall be chargeable only upon or collected from the estate, fund, or party represented. In cases in which the plaintiff or defendant is guilty of mismanagement or bad faith in the action, proceeding, or defense of the action, the court shall direct that the costs recovered under par. (a) shall be paid by the plaintiff or defendant personally.
   (2)   In addition to other costs, all actions or proceedings in which any fiduciary may be entitled to recover costs, the fiduciary may recover any sum that the fiduciary paid to a company, authorized by the laws of this state to act as the fiduciary’s surety, for becoming the fiduciary’s surety upon any bond or other obligation given by the fiduciary in the fiduciary’s representative capacity in the action or proceeding pursuant to law or the order of any court, as may be allowed by the court in which the fiduciary accounts, not exceeding the lesser of 2 percent per year on the amount secured by the obligation or the actual amount paid to the company.