Rule 803. Hearsay exceptions; availability of declarant immaterial. - North Carolina Statutes

Rule 803. Hearsay exceptions; availability ofdeclarant immaterial.

The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though thedeclarant is available as a witness:

(1)        Present Sense Impression. – A statement describing orexplaining an event or condition made while the declarant was perceiving theevent or condition, or immediately thereafter.

(2)        Excited Utterance. – A statement relating to a startlingevent or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitementcaused by the event or condition.

(3)        Then Existing Mental, Emotional, or Physical Condition. – A statement of the declarant's then existing state of mind, emotion, sensation,or physical condition (such as intent, plan, motive, design, mental feeling,pain, and bodily health), but not including a statement of memory or belief toprove the fact remembered or believed unless it relates to the execution,revocation, identification, or terms of declarant's will.

(4)        Statements for Purposes of Medical Diagnosis or Treatment. –Statements made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment and describingmedical history, or past or present symptoms, pain, or sensations, or theinception or general character of the cause or external source thereof insofaras reasonably pertinent to diagnosis or treatment.

(5)        Recorded Recollection. – A memorandum or record concerning amatter about which a witness once had knowledge but now has insufficientrecollection to enable him to testify fully and accurately, shown to have beenmade or adopted by the witness when the matter was fresh in his memory and toreflect that knowledge correctly. If admitted, the memorandum or record may beread into evidence but may not itself be received as an exhibit unless offeredby an adverse party.

(6)        Records of Regularly Conducted Activity. – A memorandum,report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions,opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from informationtransmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularlyconducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of thatbusiness activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation,all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, unlessthe source of information or the method or circumstances of preparationindicate lack of trustworthiness. The term "business" as used in thisparagraph includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation,and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit.

(7)        Absence of Entry in Records Kept in Accordance with theProvisions of Paragraph (6). – Evidence that a matter is not included in thememoranda, reports, records, or data compilations, in any form, kept inaccordance with the provisions of paragraph (6), to prove the nonoccurrence ornonexistence of the matter, if the matter was of a kind of which a memorandum,report, record, or data compilation was regularly made and preserved, unlessthe sources of information or other circumstances indicate lack oftrustworthiness.

(8)        Public Records and Reports. – Records, reports, statements,or data compilations, in any form, of public offices or agencies, setting forth(A) the activities of the office or agency, or (B) matters observed pursuant toduty imposed by law as to which matters there was a duty to report, excluding,however, in criminal cases matters observed by police officers and other law‑enforcementpersonnel, or (C) in civil actions and proceedings and against the State incriminal cases, factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuantto authority granted by law, unless the sources of information or othercircumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness.

(9)        Records of Vital Statistics. – Records or data compilations,in any form, of births, fetal deaths, deaths, or marriages, if the reportthereof was made to a public office pursuant to requirements of law.

(10)      Absence of Public Record or Entry. – To prove the absence ofa record, report, statement, or data compilation, in any form, or thenonoccurrence or nonexistence of a matter of which a record, report, statement,or data compilation, in any form, was regularly made and preserved by a publicoffice or agency, evidence in the form of a certification in accordance withRule 902, or testimony, that diligent search failed to disclose the record,report, statement, or data compilation, or entry.

(11)      Records of Religious Organizations. – Statements of births,marriages, divorces, deaths, legitimacy, ancestry, relationship by blood ormarriage, or other similar facts of personal or family history, contained in aregularly kept record of a religious organization.

(12)      Marriage, Baptismal, and Similar Certificates. – Statementsof fact contained in a certificate that the maker performed a marriage or otherceremony or administered a sacrament, made by a clergyman, public official, orother person authorized by the rules or practices of a religious organizationor by law to perform the act certified, and purporting to have been issued atthe time of the act or within a reasonable time thereafter.

(13)      Family Records. – Statements of fact concerning personal orfamily history contained in family Bibles, genealogies, charts, engravings onrings, inscriptions on family portraits, engravings on urns, crypts, ortombstones, or the like.

(14)      Records of Documents Affecting an Interest in Property. – Therecord of a document purporting to establish or affect an interest in property,as proof of the content of the original recorded document and its execution anddelivery by each person by whom it purports to have been executed, if therecord is a record of a public office and an applicable statute authorizes therecording of documents of that kind in that office.

(15)      Statements in Documents Affecting an Interest in Property. –A statement contained in a document purporting to establish or affect aninterest in property if the matter stated was relevant to the purpose of thedocument, unless dealings with the property since the document was made havebeen inconsistent with the truth of the statement or the purport of thedocument.

(16)      Statements in Ancient Documents. – Statements in a documentin existence 20 years or more the authenticity of which is established.

(17)      Market Reports, Commercial Publications. – Market quotations,tabulations, lists, directories, or other published compilations, generallyused and relied upon by the public or by persons in particular occupations.

(18)      Learned Treatises. – To the extent called to the attention ofan expert witness upon cross‑examination or relied upon by him in directexamination, statements contained in published treatises, periodicals, orpamphlets on a subject of history, medicine, or other science or art,established as a reliable authority by the testimony or admission of thewitness or by other expert testimony or by judicial notice. If admitted, thestatements may be read into evidence but may not be received as exhibits.

(19)      Reputation Concerning Personal or Family History. –Reputation among members of his family by blood, adoption, or marriage, oramong his associates, or in the community, concerning a person's birth,adoption, marriage, divorce, death, legitimacy, relationship by blood,adoption, or marriage, ancestry, or other similar fact of his personal orfamily history.

(20)      Reputation Concerning Boundaries or General History. –Reputation in a community, arising before the controversy, as to boundaries ofor customs affecting lands in the community, and reputation as to events ofgeneral history important to the community or state or nation in which located.

(21)      Reputation as to Character. – Reputation of a person'scharacter among his associates or in the community.

(22)      (Reserved).

(23)      Judgment as to Personal, Family or General History, orBoundaries. – Judgments as proof of matters of personal, family or generalhistory, or boundaries, essential to the judgment, if the same would beprovable by evidence of reputation.

(24)      Other Exceptions. – A statement not specifically covered byany of the foregoing exceptions but having equivalent circumstantial guaranteesof trustworthiness, if the court determines that (A) the statement is offeredas evidence of a material fact; (B) the statement is more probative on the pointfor which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procurethrough reasonable efforts; and (C) the general purposes of these rules and theinterests of justice will best be served by admission of the statement intoevidence. However, a statement may not be admitted under this exception unlessthe proponent of it gives written notice stating his intention to offer thestatement and the particulars of it, including the name and address of thedeclarant, to the adverse party sufficiently in advance of offering thestatement to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to prepare tomeet the statement. (1983, c. 701, s.1.)