Opinion ID: 1303321
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: trial court's refusal to allow evidence collected by the nhtsa and tla complaints verified by ford

Text: Kroeger's second and third assignments of error appear to refer to the same piece of evidence: the last three pages of what was offered as exhibit 105. Those three pages contained nine brief summaries of accidents which were allegedly caused by locking or binding in the steering system of 1986 Ford Taurus or Sable automobiles. Kroeger attempted to introduce the accident summaries as part of a concern analysis report produced by Ford which identified and addressed the company's concerns over the TLA problem. The trial court admitted into evidence as exhibit 105 the bulk of the concern analysis report, but excluded the accident summaries pursuant to Ford's motion in limine and objection at trial. Ford contends that the trial court properly excluded the accident summaries because they constituted inadmissible hearsay. In response, Kroeger implicitly concedes that the accident summaries are hearsay, but argues that they were admissible under the hearsay exception in Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-803(7) (Reissue 1989): Subject to the provisions of section 27-403, the following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness: . . . . (7) Upon reasonable notice to the opposing party prior to trial, records, reports, statements or data compilations made by a public official or agency of facts required to be observed and recorded pursuant to a duty imposed by law, unless the sources of information or the method or circumstances of the investigation are shown by the opposing party to indicate a lack of trustworthiness. (Emphasis supplied.) From the record, it is clear that the accident summaries in question were prepared by Ford, not the NHTSA. The fact that the NHTSA requested Ford to compile the accident summaries is of no consequence. Compilations prepared by private entities at the direction of a federal agency do not constitute the facts required to be observed and recorded pursuant to a duty imposed by law contemplated by § 27-803(7). Nothing in the accident summaries indicates that representatives of the NHTSA observed anything in compiling the summaries. Rather, it appears that the NHTSA received notice of a problem with certain Ford automobiles and requested Ford to conduct its own investigation and report the results to the NHTSA. The information compiled by Ford does not fall within the hearsay exception in § 27-803(7), and the trial court properly excluded the accident reports.