📄 Sidebar: evidence ruling — Monday, November 4, 1996
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C:\DEPT103\CIVIL\1996\NOV\4\SIDEBAR-EVIDENCE-RULING.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 8 of 57

Sidebar: evidence ruling

Date: Monday, November 4, 1996 • Utterances: 22
A brief sidebar in which Judge Fujisaki acknowledged he had previously admitted Exhibit 216 on incorrect grounds (as a business record) and corrected the ruling on the spot, receiving it instead under California Evidence Code section 1509 (summary of voluminous records). The attorneys helped the judge locate the correct statutory citation after some uncertainty about the exact code section number.
1 THE COURT:

Let me see counsel on that issue.

2 (The following proceedings were held at the bench:)
3 THE COURT:

This is 216?

4 MR. LAMBERT:

Yes.

5 THE COURT:

I'm on 216. I think there was an objection, wasn't there?

6 MR. LAMBERT:

There was --

7 THE COURT:

Well, I overruled it on the ruling -- apparently I think I overruled it on erroneous grounds. I think if my recollection serves me correctly without going back through the computer to find it, I ruled that it was a business record.

8 MR. LAMBERT:

What it is, Your Honor, it's a summary, voluminous business records. It's a 12 -- I think its 1209, the summary of voluminous records exception.

9 MR. BLASIER:

It wasn't prepared by him.

10 MR. LAMBERT:

Doesn't have to be.

This is the same exhibit introduced at the criminal trial.

11 THE COURT:

Doesn't make it any better.

KEY QUOTE
12 MR. LAMBERT:

No. No, I'm saying it's obviously standard, compiled of underlined records.

13 THE COURT:

There is no 1209.

14 MR. LAMBERT:

I must be wrong. It's the summary of voluminous records. Exception is --

15 MR. PETROCELLI:

If it's in sequence.

16 MR. LAMBERT:

Maybe it's 14 --

17 MR. PETROCELLI:

It might be in the 14 hundred sequence, Judge.

18 THE COURT:

Is it 1340?

19 MR. LAMBERT:

Its actually called summary or voluminous records.

20 MR. PETROCELLI:

It's 1509, Your Honor.

21 THE COURT:

Okay. The court sets aside its previous ruling that it was a business record exception. I'll receive it under section 1509 of the evidence code. Okay.

KEY QUOTE
22 (The following proceedings were resumed in open court in the presence of the jury:)

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (4)

Hiroshi Fujisaki
I overruled it on erroneous grounds. I think if my recollection serves me correctly without going back through the computer to find it, I ruled that it was a business record.
Judge openly acknowledges making an error in a prior evidentiary ruling and moves to self-correct.
Hiroshi Fujisaki
The court sets aside its previous ruling that it was a business record exception. I'll receive it under section 1509 of the evidence code.
The corrected ruling — admitting the exhibit under the summary of voluminous records exception rather than the business records exception.
Tom Lambert
This is the same exhibit introduced at the criminal trial.
Lambert invokes the criminal trial precedent to bolster admissibility, which Fujisaki immediately deflects.
Hiroshi Fujisaki
Doesn't make it any better.
Fujisaki firmly signals he will not defer to rulings from the criminal trial — consistent with his general posture in the civil case.

Evidence (1)

216
A summary of voluminous records (previously introduced in the criminal trial)
prior ruling corrected; admitted under California Evidence Code section 1509

Notable Exchanges (2)

Tom LambertDaniel PetrocelliHiroshi Fujisaki
All three participants fumbled to identify the correct Evidence Code section number — Lambert guessed 1209, then 'maybe 14 hundred,' Petrocelli corrected to 1509, and Fujisaki had floated 1340 — before landing on the right citation.
mildly fumbling, collaborative
Tom LambertHiroshi Fujisaki
Lambert cited the criminal trial admission of the same exhibit as support; Fujisaki sharply dismissed this as irrelevant to admissibility.
firm, dismissive

Light Moments (1)

Tom Lambert, Daniel Petrocelli, Hiroshi Fujisaki
Attorneys and judge collectively couldn't remember the Evidence Code section number, cycling through 1209, 14-something, 1340, and finally landing on 1509.

Objections

1 objections (0 sustained, 1 overruled)
Proceeding 8132 • 22 utterances
Civil Trial
Department 103
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