Court Opinion

ID: 9751950
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 17:20:07.983639+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:51:23.906992
License: Public Domain

SAUFLEY, J„
with whom WATHEN, C.J. joins, concurring.
[¶ 22] Although we concur with the result in this case, we would explicitly overrule Therriault. Bluntly put, Therriault represents a classic instance of bad law created in search of good results.
[¶ 23] The Court’s declaration that “Therriault does not create a business records exception to the hearsay rule for expert reports” mistakes the import of that decision and results in a lack of clarity in this important area. The laboratory report in Therriault consisted of an analysis of tissue samples taken from the body of the alleged victim and the defendant. See 485 A.2d at 991. The report reviewed the evidence presented and recorded specific findings resulting from the examination of the samples. Although the report was admitted without objection at the first trial, the State’s objection to its admission at the second trial placed the defendant in the position of demonstrating its admissibility. Because the author of the report had died in the interim, the defendant was unable to present a witness to establish that the report met the requirements of the business records exception to the hearsay rule. See id. at 993.
[¶ 24] Notwithstanding the nature of the expert’s report and the defendant’s inability to bring the report within the strictures of Rule 803(6), we concluded in Therriault that “it was error for the presiding justice to have ruled that the laboratory report was inadmissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule.” Id. at 997.
[¶ 25] The Therriault opinion can only be understood as attempting to address a fundamental lack of fairness that the Court perceived in the State’s belated objection to the report’s admission. In fact, absent the discussion of the business records exception, the Court’s ruling merely effectuates the purposes of another exception to the hearsay rule related to testimony given at prior proceedings. Because the report was, in effect, offered in lieu of testimony at the first trial, at a time when the author would have been available to authenticate and explain his findings and for cross-examination, the report may have been admissible under Rule 804(b)(1).
[¶26] Unfortunately, we relied on the business records exception to achieve a result more fair to the defendant, and in so doing created significant confusion about the applicability of that exception. In declining to overrule Therriault today, and in addressing only those expert reports it defines as “advocacy reports,” the Court leaves open the possibility that other expert reports may be admissible under Rule 803(6).
[¶ 27] We would hold that an expert’s report, regardless of when or for whom it was prepared, and regardless of which party offers the report, is not admissible under the business records exception. See M.R. Evid. 803(6). Such reports often contain extensive compilations of information which would not otherwise be admissible, just as the expert’s opinion will often be based in part on information that is inadmissible. Reliance by the expert on such information does not make that information independently admissible “at the behest of the proponent of the opinion.” RichaRD H. Field & PeteR L. MURRAY, Maine Evidence ' § 703.2, at 358 (4th ed.1997) (citing Warren v. Waterville Urban Renewal Authority, 235 A.2d 295 (Me.1967)). The same is true regarding the opinions of another expert that may have formed the basis of the authoring expert’s opinion. We have made it clear that a party may not offer the opinion of one expert by presenting another expert at trial and asking the testifying expert to articulate the opinion of the expert who is not present. See Henriksen v. Cameron, 622 A.2d 1135, 1144 (Me.1993).
*1055[¶28] Moreover, by definition, an expert’s report includes the opinions of the expert, whose testimony must meet the requirements of Rules 702 and 705.11 The admission of the expert’s opinion under the business records exception would eviscerate the requirements imposed by these rules.
[¶29] While the Court today generally recognizes these principles, the failure to overrule Therriault leaves open a door that should be firmly closed. We would explicitly overrule Therriautt’s application of the business records exception.

. See State v. Williams, 388 A.2d 500, 504 (Me.1978); cf. Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993); Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, - U.S. -, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999) (addressing generally application of Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence).