Section 18.13 Business Records

• Library: Evidence 2017

A. (§18.13) Business Records

The Uniform Business Records as Evidence Law, §§ 490.660–490.690, RSMo 2016, has greatly streamlined the process of introducing business records at trial. Its scope is broad; it applies to records created by “every kind of business, profession, occupation, calling or operation of institutions, whether carried on for profit or not.” Section 490.670.

The heart of the Uniform Business Records as Evidence Law is § 490.680, which provides that:

A record of an act, condition or event, shall, insofar as relevant, be competent evidence if the custodian or other qualified witness testifies to its identity and the mode of its preparation, and if it was made in the regular course of business, at or near the time of the act, condition or event, and if, in the opinion of the court, the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to justify its admission.

1. This provision has been interpreted as requiring three things of a document proponent.

2. The custodian of records or other qualified witness must identify the record and testify to its mode of preparation. State v. Sutherland, 939 S.W.2d 373, 377 (Mo. banc 1997).

3. The custodian or qualified witness must testify that the record was made in the regular course of the record-keeper’s business and at or near the time of the act, condition, or event recorded. Id.

4. The court must find that the record is trustworthy in terms of the sources from which information was gathered and the method and time of the document’s preparation. Id.

A witness is qualified to lay the foundation for a business record if the witness has knowledge of the operations of the business creating the document and its method of keeping records. Estate of West v. Moffatt, 32 S.W.3d 648, 653 (Mo. App. W.D. 2000). In addition, a records custodian or other qualified witness...