Opinion ID: 2364367
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Telephone bill

Text: The eighth issue relates to the Chancellor's refusal to allow Barnes's telephone bill to be admitted under Ark.R.Evid. 803(24) (1992). The telephone bill would allegedly show that Barnes made a phone call to his fiance from his home at approximately 10:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Barnes argued this evidence would contradict Hicks's testimony that he was at her home at the time she alleged. As Barnes could not offer a sufficient foundation to establish the telephone bill as a business record under Ark.R.Evid. 803(6) (1992), he argued it should be admitted under the catch-all exception found in Ark.R.Evid. 803(24) (1992). The Chancellor ruled the telephone bill should be admitted, if at all, under the business records exception to the hearsay rule and refused to allow its admission under 803(24). We have recognized that the common-law exceptions to the hearsay rule are based either upon necessity or upon some compelling reason for attaching more than average credibility to hearsay. Any new exception, such as 803(24), must have circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness equivalent to those supporting the common-law exceptions. Hill v. Brown, 283 Ark. 185, 672 S.W.2d 330 (1984). In determining trustworthiness under the residual hearsay exception in 803(24), the Chancellor must determine that (1) the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact, (2) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts, and (3) the general purposes of the rules and the interests of justice will best be served by admission of the statements into evidence. Blaylock v. Strecker, 291 Ark. 340, 724 S.W.2d 470 (1987). The residual hearsay exception was intended to be used very rarely, and only in exceptional circumstances. Ward v. State, 298 Ark. 448, 770 S.W.2d 109 (1989). Barnes failed to offer any evidence that the telephone bill had circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness as required for admissibility under Rule 803(24). In these circumstances, we cannot say the Chancellor abused her discretion by refusing to allow the bill to be admitted under the residual hearsay exception. Barnes also failed to comply with Rule 803(24) by not notifying Hicks that the bill would be introduced under the Rule. A statement may not be introduced under 803(24) unless the proponent of it makes known to the adverse party sufficiently in advance to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to prepare to meet it.