Key legal question
Whether defendants are entitled to party compensation for merely noting that an appeal was filed and then withdrawn before service for response.
Extracted holding
No. The minimal effort of merely taking note of the filing and withdrawal does not justify a party fee.
Extracted reasoning
Under Art. 106(1) CPC and § 158(1) of the fee schedule, costs must reflect the work required for proper representation. Here the defendants only received two notices; the appeal had not yet been served, so there was no basis for serious substantive work. Granting compensation would be unfair, especially where the appellants had voluntarily sent a courtesy copy of the appeal.