When there is a joinder of parties in a personal injury action, can the court make only one award of costs?

In holding that only one award of costs could be made where there was a joinder of plaintiffs the New York court stated 'So far as costs are concerned, all plaintiffs and all defendants joined under section 209, Civil Practice Act, are one entity.' Antonietti v. Pearson, 153 Misc. 803, 276 N.Y.S. 52, 54. This section 209 corresponds with the California Code of Civil Procedure, section 378, providing for joinder of parties.

In Colla v. Carmichael U-Drive Autos, Inc., supra, [111 Cal.App.Supp. 784, 787; 294 P. 378, 380] the court stated, referring to section 378 'In the complaint filed, each 'case' or cause of action preserved its identity, and each plaintiff prayed for and obtained a segregated award based on the damages individually proved. The code section contemplates of course an action single in form, but with each 'case' or demand retaining its distinctive identity as though pleaded in an independent action. No plaintiff is interested in the entire complaint. The interest of each is in his own 'case' or cause of action; and the complaint as a whole is merely a series of 'cases' embodied in one document.'