Opinion ID: 437553
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Foundational Requirements for Admissibility of Business Records

Text: 80 The government also argues that the ledger entries were business records which provide substantial evidence corroborating the admissions contained in the ledgers. The government appears to be arguing as follows: 81 1. The ledger entries are business records. 82 2. Business records are trustworthy. 83 3. The ledger entries contain admissions in addition to a record of daily business transactions. 84 4. Therefore, the ledger entries are admissible as business records to corroborate any admissions they contain. 85 The only authority cited for this novel proposition is United States v. Licavoli, 604 F.2d 613 (9th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 935, 100 S.Ct. 2151, 64 L.Ed.2d 787 (1980). 86 Licavoli is inapposite. There, the Court affirmed the conviction of an art gallery owner for the theft of a valuable painting. One issue on appeal was whether an art appraisal was erroneously admitted into evidence under the business records exception. Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). The appellant did not argue that the government failed to establish the foundational requirements of this hearsay exception. Rather, he contended that the appraiser did not qualify as an expert witness pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 702 and that the business records exception did not dispense with the expert witness requirements. The court disagreed. The Court reasoned that there was no need affirmatively to establish the appraisers expert qualifications because Rule 803(6) expressly provides for the exclusion of a business record if the source of information indicates a lack of trustworthiness. Id. at 622. Licavoli simply did not address the issues before us. 87 The government's argument in support of admissibility is based on the false premise that the ledger entries qualify as business records. A hearsay statement is admissible as a business record pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 803(6) if the following foundational facts are proved: 88 1. The writing is made or transmitted by a person with knowledge at or near the time of the incident recorded. 89 2. The record is kept in the course of regularly conducted business activity. 90 These facts must be shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness. 91 The record will not be admissible, however, if the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate a lack of trustworthiness. 92 The government failed to comply with the requirement of the business records exception to the hearsay rule. 93 The government did not produce the custodian of the records as a witness. No evidence was offered by any person that the records were kept by persons having personal knowledge of the facts recorded or that the entries were made at or near the time of the transaction. No evidence was presented to demonstrate that the persons who made the entries were truthful and had a clear recollection of the facts. The entries were made by many persons, some of them unidentified. The expert's opinion that these entries were business records was not supported by the foundational evidence required by Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). 94 The government failed to show that evidence of the ledger entries falls within [the foundational requirements] of a firmly rooted hearsay exception. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. at 66, 100 S.Ct. at 2539. The ledger entries were inadmissible as proof of the matter asserted for all of the reasons discussed above. 95