Court Opinion

ID: 9744621
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:10:33.673941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:50.381743
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COOK, specially concurring: The majority holds the trial court erred in admitting the blood-alcohol test as a business record without the requisite foundation. At one time medical records could not be admitted under the business record exception to the hearsay rule, but that prohibition was eliminated in 1992. (145 Ill. 2d R. 236.) For foundation it is not necessary that the preparer of the records testify, or that the preparer be shown to be unavailable. (People v. Lendabarker (1991), 215 Ill. App. 3d 540, 559-60, 575 N.E.2d 568, 580.) Nor is it necessary that the custodian of the records testify. All that is required is that someone familiar with the business and its mode of operation testify at trial as to the manner in which the record was prepared. (Preski v. Warchol Construction Co. (1982), 111 Ill. App. 3d 641, 650, 444 N.E.2d 1105, 1111.) Anyone familiar with the business and procedure may testify as to the records. (Birch v. Township of Drummer (1985), 139 Ill. App. 3d 397, 407, 487 N.E.2d 798, 806.) A doctor with privileges at a hospital may be sufficiently familiar with some hospital records to testify to their introduction. Dr. Montgomery’s use of tests taken by- the hospital may also be compared to the use by one business of information gathered by another business. A business can prove up records of another business which it has in its possession if it verified those records (2 McCormick on Evidence § 292, at 278 (4th ed. 1992)) or commissioned them (Argueta v. Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal R.R. Co. (1991), 224 Ill. App. 3d 11, 21, 586 N.E.2d 386, 392). Testimony of the business receiving the information is sufficient when that business, acting in regular course, integrates the information received into its own records, relies on the information in its day-to-day operations, and surrounding circumstances indicate trustworthiness. M. Graham, Cleary & Graham’s Handbook of Illinois Evidence § 803.10, at 651 (5th ed. 1990). Dr. Montgomery treated plaintiff at St. Francis Hospital. Dr. Montgomery was allowed to testify that the admitting notes of the hospital indicate that fluids were drawn for testing on May 4, 1990, at 10:42 p.m., and that the fluids tested negative for blood-alcohol. Whether or not Dr. Montgomery relied on that test in treating plaintiff, it seems clear that the doctor could have relied on the test, and would have relied upon it if there was any reason for doing so. The test here so clearly was what it purported to be that the burden of showing otherwise should rest on the party opposing admission. There is no justification in this case for requiring that some other witness be called, who may have known less about the test than the doctor. Defendant argues that plaintiff’s blood-alcohol level at 10:42 p.m. is not relevant, and the only relevant level was the level at the time of the accident, some four hours earlier. That objection, however, goes to weight and not to admissibility. The trial court could properly have allowed the test to come in for what it was worth. In any event, I agree with the majority that defendant was not prejudiced by the limited admission of the test here.