Court Opinion

ID: 9761025
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:28:51.480003+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:19.739321
License: Public Domain

VANCE, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which adopts Fed.R.Evid. 803(4). When, as here, we adopt a federal rule of procedure, we must recognize that the rule is not limited in application to the facts of this case. It may have wide-ranging applications to other factual situations not now before us and to which we have given no consideration at all. The question of the adoption of this federal rule has not been briefed. We have not heard argument on the question, and the adoption of a new rule of evidence in this manner flies squarely in the face of our announced policy submitting the proposed adoption of rules to a discussion by the members of the Kentucky Bar Association before they are adopted. We have just completed a two-year process concerning the proposed adoption of Kentucky Civil Rules of Evidence.
Contrary to our established policy, the majority has adopted a new criminal rule of evidence without any discussion or attempt to discover what ramifications may lie hidden in its adoption. Ostensibly, it is adopted to pave the way for the admission into evidence of out-of-court statements of young children and infants made to a physician who was consulted for the purpose of giving testimony at trial. The rule would apparently utilize admission of out-of-court statements insofar as they are pertinent to diagnosis and treatment, whether or not they are made for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment. Heretofore, such out-of-court statements have been admitted only when made to a treating physician, not one employed to testify. There is a good reason for this limitation.
A statement to a treating physician to make a diagnosis and to give proper treatment by a person who wants to get well and knows that his recovery may well depend on his telling the truth to his doctor, has an inherent indication of reliability. It is so likely that one would tell the truth under such circumstances that the statement is sufficiently trustworthy to be admitted into evidence. The same is not true, however, when the physician wears the hat of a paid investigator who has been consulted to testify at trial. The statements made to him are not made under any urgency to tell the truth because the likelihood of recovery of one’s health does not depend upon it. There may be cases where the out-of-court statements to the physician employed to testify were precipitated by the basest of motives, including a possible motive of an adult to coach an infant to make statements designed to secure the conviction of a particular accused person.
The adoption of this rule may also have implications for the future in several cases relating to statements made by an unavailable witness to a physician consulted for the purpose of testifying at trial. The purpose of such declarant might not be to insure the recovery of his health, but rather to insure the recovery of a judgment.
I think, also, that we should be particularly cautious about admitting into evidence the out-of-court statements to a physician of any child who is not competent to testify in person because a child whose *387understanding is not sufficient to allow him to testify might well also fail to understand that the recovery of his health is dependent upon the truth of his statements to the doctor.
The reason we exclude hearsay testimony in any case is that the declarant is not subject to cross-examination and that there is no sufficient guarantee of the trustworthiness of the out-of-court statement. That is the difficulty here. There is no way to determine the trustworthiness of the out-of-court statements of a child whose lack of understanding renders him incompetent to testify. If the out-of-court statements are not allowed in evidence, a child molester may go free. If they are allowed into evidence, an entirely innocent person may be imprisoned.
Our failure to explore the potential consequences of this ruling should preclude its adoption in such a cavalier fashion.
STEPHENS, C.J., and COMBS, J., join in this dissent.