A rate of costs given in certain actions, consisting, according to its technical import, of the common costs, half of these, and half of the latter. 2 Tidd, Pr. 988. The word “treble.” in this application , is not understood in its literal sense of thrice the amount of single costs, but signifies merely the addition together of the three sums fixed as above. Id. Treble costs have been abolished in England, by St. 5 & 6 Vict. c. 97. In American law . In Pennsylvania and New Jersey the rule is different. When an act of assembly gives treble costs, the party is allowed three times the usual costs, with the exception that the fees of the officers are not to be trebled when they are not regularly or usually payable by the defendant. Shoemaker v. Nesbit, 2 Rawle (Pa.) 203; Welsh v. Anthony, 16 Pa. 256; Mairs v. Sparks, 5 N. J. Law, 516.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
