Witness Laying Foundation for Business Records Exception Need Not be the Person that Prepared the Business Records
If you have visited this blog before, then you know the importance I place on the business records exception to the hearsay rule in civil business disputes. (Check out this article too.) Lately, the business records exception to the hearsay rule is a hot topic in mortgage foreclosure cases.
In yet another foreclosure case, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as Trustee, on Behalf of the Harborview Mortgage Loan Trust Mortgage Loan Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007-1 v. Balkisson, 41 Fla.L.Weekly D308a (Fla. 4th DCA 2016), the trial court entered an involuntary dismissal in favor of the borrower and against the lender after sustaining the borrower’s objection to hearsay based on the lender not properly laying the foundation for the business records exception to the hearsay rule. (An involuntary dismissal is essentially the same thing as a directed verdict in a non-jury bench trial. Similar to a directed verdict, the standard of appellate review for a motion for involuntary dismissal is de novo. See Wells Fargo Bank, supra.) The trial court sustained the hearsay objection because the loan servicer’s records custodian witness was unable to describe the specialized computer programs utilized to generate the payment history and default notice. The trial court’s ruling in sustaining the objection precluded the lender from presenting the payment history and the default notice into evidence meaning the lender could not prove its case at trial. The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed.
The Fourth District explained that a testifying witness establishing the business records exception to the hearsay rule “need not be the person who actually prepared the business records. Instead, the witness just need be well enough acquainted with the [record keeping] activity to provide testimony.” Wells Fargo Bank, supra (internal quotations and citation omitted).
While the witness was not familiar with how data was entered into the computer system, there is no requirement that the witness have such knowledge to satisfy the business records exception to the hearsay rule. The witness was sufficiently familiar with the loan servicer’s practices and procedures in generating the payment history and notice of default to lay the foundation for the business records exception.
Please contact David Adelstein at [email protected] or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.
