Dallas County v. Commercial Union Assurance

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · Evidence

EvidenceHearsayAdmissibility of newspapersRule 43(a)hearsaynewspaper articleRule 43(a)necessity

Facts

At trial, the insurers sought to show that charred timbers found in the courthouse debris could have come from an old fire rather than from lightning in 1957. To support that point, they offered a copy of the Morning Times of Selma dated June 9, 1901, containing an unsigned article reporting that the unfinished dome of the courthouse was in flames and soon fell in while the courthouse was under construction. The editor of the Selma Times-Journal testified that his company kept archives of the Morning Times and that the offered issue was in those archives. Dallas County objected that the article was hearsay and fit no recognized exception, but the trial judge admitted it.

Issue

Whether the district court properly admitted into evidence a 1901 newspaper article to show that the Dallas County Courthouse had suffered a fire in 1901. More specifically, the question was whether such a newspaper account could be admitted in federal court despite the hearsay objection.

Rule

In federal court, admissibility of evidence is procedural and governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 43(a). Under that rule, in matters of local interest involving facts of a public nature generally known in the community, when the event occurred so long ago that eyewitness testimony would probably be less trustworthy than a contemporary newspaper account, the court may relax exclusionary hearsay rules and admit the article if it is necessary, trustworthy, relevant, and material, within the trial judge's discretion.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

In a federal diversity trial in Mississippi, Gulf Parish Hospital sues Northfield Mutual Casualty after part of its century-old annex collapses. To explain old burn marks found in the beams, the insurer offers a 1918 Biloxi newspaper article reporting that the annex roof caught fire during reconstruction; no witness with a present memory of the event can be located.

Is the newspaper article most likely admissible over a hearsay objection?

Explanation. The majority held that, under Rule 43(a), a federal court may admit an otherwise hearsay newspaper article when the matter is one of local public interest, the event is so old that eyewitness testimony would probably be less trustworthy than the contemporary account, and the evidence is necessary, trustworthy, relevant, and material. The court expressly declined to rest admission on the ancient-documents label or any automatic rule for newspapers.