Brief Fact Summary. The spouses of the plaintiffs died during flight training when their plane was unable to recover from an evasive maneuver. The defendant, Beech Aircraft Corp. (the “defendant”) attempted to admit an investigative report that concluded the accident was caused by pilot error.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Federal Rules of Evidence (“F.R.E.) Rule 803(8)(c) should be construed broadly to ensure reports that contain opinions or conclusions are not automatically excluded from evidence.
Issue.
Whether statements in the form of conclusions or opinions are by their nature excluded from F.R.E. Rule 803(8)(c)?
Whether plaintiff should be allowed to introduce further portions of evidence that were only partially admitted in order to clarify the admitted portions?
Held.
The court allowed the investigation report to be admitted under F.R.E. Rule 803(8)(c) despite the presence of opinions and conclusions by the investigator. The court wanted a broad interpretation of the Rule to encompass records that may have these statements and yet have a high level of trustworthiness.
The plaintiff should be allowed to introduce other portions of a record under the “rule of completeness,” a doctrine that ensures that misunderstandings or distortions of partially admitted records will be clarified.
According to the common law rule: the opponent, against whom a part of an utterance has been put in, may in his turn complement it by putting in the remainder, in order to secure for the tribunal a complete understanding of the total tenor and effect of the utterance.
View Full Point of Law The rule of completeness was used here to allow cross-examination by the plaintiff’s own attorney in order to clarify portions of the disclosed letter. The barrier here is not the trustworthiness of the document, but rather the unfairness of allowing only selected portions of a letter to get introduced.