People v Batjer, 2010 NY Slip Op 06825 (4th Dept. 2010)
“We agree with defendant, however, that the court erred in admitting in evidence certain records of BTS inasmuch as the People failed to establish that the records fall within the business records exception to the hearsay rule (see CPLR 4518 [a]; CPL 60.10). An employee of Regeneration Technologies, Inc. (RTI), a human tissue processing company that contracts with BTS, testified that RTI relied on the records submitted by BTS, which were incorporated into RTI’s records following a reconciliation process. The employee also testified that RTI was required to maintain those records, that the records were made in the regular course of RTI’s business, and that RTI maintained those records in the regular course of business. However, the RTI employee was not familiar with the record-keeping procedures of BTS and thus was unable to testify whether BTS made the records contemporaneously with the events being recorded, whether the records in question were made in the regular course of the business of BTS, or whether it was in fact the regular course of the business of BTS to make such records.”
This is a pretty exacting standard.
