Opinion ID: 1838003
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: business entry statute

Text: The ultimate question for decision is whether Lewis is sound law today. But to properly consider that, we must in order look at the business entry statute, the Lewis decision and its rationale, the scope and purpose of the constitutional right of confrontation and finally examine the business entry statute in light of the purpose of the right of confrontation. The business entry statute, 1961 PA 236, pertinently reads as follows: Any writing or record whether in the form of an entry in a book or otherwise, made as a memorandum of any act, transaction, occurrence or event shall be admissible in evidence in all trials, hearings and proceedings in any cause or suit in any court, or before any officer, arbitrators, or referees, in proof of said act, transaction, occurrence or event if it was made in the regular course of any business and it was the regular course of such business to make such memorandum or record at the time of such act, transaction, occurrence or event or within a reasonable time thereafter. MCLA 600.2146; MSA 27A.2146. (Emphasis added.) The statute clearly allows business entries in all trials. Nothing anywhere in the statute suggests business entries be treated differently in criminal trials from civil trials. [4] In a word, if business records cannot be introduced into evidence it cannot be on the basis of statutory interpretation but must be on the basis of unconstitutionality.