Case Provides Lessons On The Business Records Exception to the Hearsay Rule

As identified by Attorney Jon Bruno on his excellent Pa. Super Blog, the Pennsylvania Superior Court provided an excellent analysis of the business records exception to the rule against hearsay in the case of Commonwealth v. Thomas, No. 429 WDA 2025 (Pa. Super. Sept. 21, 2026 Neuman, J., Lazarus, P.J., and Stabile, J.) (Op. by Stabile, J.).

This is another example of an appellate court decision in a criminal court case having possible applicability to the civil litigation arena.

At pags. 28-37 of the Opinion, the Superior Court reviewed the parameters of Pa. R.E. 803(6) regarding the business records exception.

The appellate court held that it was error to admit into evidence under the business records exception, a Pennsylvania State Police record that contained multiple layers of hearsay.

At a minimum, the Superior Court held that the business records exception was improperly applied because the law enforcement officer who testified about the record was not the custodian of the record or other qualified witness capable of laying the type of foundation required by Rule 803(6) for the exception to apply.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.


I send thanks to Attorney Jon Bruno of the Pittsburgh law firm of Bruno Litigation, LLC for publicizing this Opinion on his excellent Pa. Super blog.

Superior Court Overturns Med Mal Defense Verdict Based on Erroneous Evidentiary Rulings by Trial Court

In the case of Hagelauer v. Mainline Emergency Medicine Associates, LLC, No. 2064 EDA 2024 (Pa. Super. June 2, 2025 Panella, P.J.E., Beck, J., and Ford Elliot, P.J.E.) (Op. by Panella, P.J.E.), the Pennsylvania Superior Court addressed various issues raised following the entry of a defense verdict in a medical malpractice case.

According to the Opinion, the allegations pertained to the treatment, or lack thereof, relative to a deceased Plaintiff who suffered cardiac arrest.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court overruled the defense verdict based upon a finding, in part, that the trial court had improperly barred the Plaintiffs from cross-examining the Defendants’ expert about an article that the expert had authored which conflicted with his trial testimony.

The Superior Court noted that an expert's authoring of an article and including a reference to the article in his CV constituted an adoption of the information contained in the article by that expert. The appellate court found that it was not credible that an expert would author an article that she or he did not adopt and support.

As such, the preclusion by the trial court of the cross-examination of the Defendant's expert on that article was found to be reversible error as the Superior Court ruled that the jury missed out on important information that might have colored its evaluation of that expert’s credibility.

The Superior otherwise addressed a separate issue of hearsay within hearsay that arose during the course of the trial.

The appellate court noted that it was not an abuse of discretion by the trial court to have excluded a note written by the Plaintiff as inadmissible double hearsay.

The note at issue included a compound statement referred not only to the Plaintiff's state of mind, but also referenced medical instructions.

While the portion of the statement that referenced the Plaintiff's state of mind may have been admissible under Pa.R.E. 803(3)'s hearsay exception related to a declarant's statement of their then-existing state of mind or condition, here, the court noted that compound statements such as the one at issue were not admissible.

Rather, the court noted that, given the existence of hearsay within hearsay, the trial court properly excluded the evidence.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.


Source: “Bad Evidentiary Ruling In Med Mal Trial Spurs Pa. Appeals Court To Toss Hospital’s Defense Verdict,” By Aleeza Furman of The Legal Intelligencer (June 4, 2025).

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