Hearsay

That a corporation's person most qualified attests to the documents does not mean that they are therefore automatically admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule.  To invoke that exception, a witness must testify from personal knowledge as to the mode of preparation of the documents, among other things.  That the person is most qualified to respond to… Read More

Under Fed. R. Evid. 803(8), a public agency's investigatory report, such as a police department's accident report, is admissible despite the Hearsay Rule to the extent that it sets forth the investigating officer's observations and knowledge, but insofar as it records statements by accident witnesses, there is an additional hearsay layer requiring an additional exception to be admissible.  Rule 803(8)… Read More

The trial court properly granted summary judgment against the plaintiff insureds who sought coverage under their named peril property insurance policy for loss of their frozen embryos due to a failure of the refrigeration unit of the embryo storage company.  The insureds could not prove that the embryos had suffered physical damage.  The storage company refused to say, and the… Read More

Plaintiff sued for defamation, alleging that defendants falsely told several reporters that plaintiff had provided explicit nude photographs of Bezos to the National Enquirer as part of a conspiracy to damage Bezos.  On defendants' Anti-SLAPP motion, plaintiff's only evidence was his declaration stating that several news reporters had told him that Bezos told them plaintiff had given the photos to… Read More

Under Evid. Code 1222, authorized admissions are an exception to the hearsay rule.  This decision holds that the exception applies to any authorized statements by an agent or employee, whether made to third parties or to other agents or employees of the same principal.  It also holds that under Dart Industries, Inc. v. Commercial Union Ins. Co. (2002) 28 Cal.4th… Read More

A severely retarded resident of a care facility sued it for damages suffered in a sexual assault by a handyman on the facility's premises.  The decision holds that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding portions of a police report which the plaintiff relied on in opposition to the facility's summary judgment motion.  The police report was excepted from… Read More

A well-established departure from the hearsay rule applies when the very fact in controversy is whether certain things were said, and not whether these things were true or false.  Hence, in a breach of contract case, the contract is not hearsay.  The contract must be authenticated, but here the plaintiff did so by showing that it had received an assignment… Read More

Explaining the California Supreme Court's relatively recent decisions dealing with the admissibility of expert testimony based on hearsay sources, this opinion explains that expert opinion is properly admissible if based on hearsay about background facts or principles of science and the like.  (See People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665; People v. Veamatahau (2020) 9 Cal.5th 16; People v. Valencia… Read More

Three conclusions reached in a Police Foundation report of the incident in which plaintiff was injured shoulld have been admitted into evidence under the adoptive admission exception to the hearsay rule.  (Evid. Code 1221, 1222.)  The police chief had stated at a press conference that he adopted the report's conclusions as true.  And, the police chief was authorized to make… Read More

None of the exceptions to hearsay rule applied to permit admission of plaintiff’s supervisor’s testimony that he had seen defendant’s name on invoices and shipping orders for asbestos-containing pipes. Read More

Plaintiff employee was not barred from testifying about her memory of the content of sexually suggestive emails defendant co-worker sent her since the emails themselves had been lost. Read More

A declarant's statement incriminating himself and denying involvement by others, including the defendant in this case, is sufficiently against the declarant's penal interest to allow its admission in evidence under the statement against interest exception to the hearsay rule in Evidence Code 1230.  Read More