90.803 Hearsay exceptions; availability of
declarant immaterial. ---The provision of s. 90.802 to the
contrary notwithstanding, the following are not inadmissible as evidence, even
though the declarant is available as a witness:
(1) SPONTANEOUS STATEMENT. A spontaneous statement describing
or explaining an event or condition made while the declarant was perceiving
the event or condition, or immediately thereafter, except when such statement
is made under circumstances that indicate its lack of
trustworthiness.
(2) EXCITED UTTERANCE. A statement or excited utterance
relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under
the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition.
(3) THEN-EXISTING MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, OR PHYSICAL CONDITION.
(a) A statement of the declarant's then-existing state of mind,
emotion, or physical sensation, including a statement of intent, plan, motive,
design, mental feeling, pain, or bodily health, when such evidence is offered
to:
1. Prove the declarant's state of mind, emotion, or physical
sensation at that time or at any other time when such state is an issue in the
action.
2. Prove or explain acts of subsequent conduct of the
declarant.
(b) However, this subsection does not make admissible:
1. An after-the-fact statement of memory or belief to prove the fact
remembered or believed, unless such statement relates to the execution,
revocation, identification, or terms of the declarant's will.
2. A statement made under circumstances that indicate its lack of
trustworthiness.
(4) STATEMENTS FOR PURPOSES OF MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OR
TREATMENT. Statements made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment
by a person seeking the diagnosis or treatment, or made by an individual who
has knowledge of the facts and is legally responsible for the person who is
unable to communicate the facts, which statements describe medical history,
past or present symptoms, pain, or sensations, or the inceptions or general
character of the cause or external source thereof, insofar as reasonably
pertinent to diagnosis or treatment.
(5) RECORDED RECOLLECTION. A memorandum or record concerning
a matter about which a witness once had knowledge, but now has insufficient
recollection to enable the witness to testify fully and accurately, shown to
have been made by the witness when the matter was fresh in the witness's
memory and to reflect that knowledge correctly. A party may read into
evidence a memorandum or record when it is admitted, but no such memorandum or
record is admissible as an exhibit unless offered by an adverse
party.
(6) RECORDS OF REGULARLY CONDUCTED BUSINESS ACTIVITY.
(a) A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form,
of acts, events, conditions, opinion, or diagnosis, made at or near the time
by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in
the course of a regularly conducted business activity and if it was the
regular practice of that business activity to make such memorandum, report,
record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or
other qualified witness, unless the sources of information or other
circumstances show lack of trustworthiness. The term "business" as used in
this paragraph includes a business, institution, association, profession,
occupation, and calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for
profit.
(b) No evidence in the form of an opinion or diagnosis is admissible
under paragraph (a) unless such opinion or diagnosis would be admissible under
ss. 90.701-90.705 if the person whose opinion is recorded were to testify to
the opinion directly.
(7) ABSENCE OF ENTRY IN RECORDS OF REGULARLY CONDUCTED
ACTIVITY. Evidence that a matter is not included in the memoranda,
reports, records, or data compilations, in any form, of a regularly conducted
activity to prove the nonoccurrence or nonexistence of the matter, if the
matter was of a kind of which a memorandum, report, record, or data
compilation was regularly made and preserved, unless the sources of
information or other circumstances show lack of trustworthiness.
(8) PUBLIC RECORDS AND REPORTS. Records, reports, statements
reduced to writing, or data compilations, in any form, of public offices or
agencies, setting forth the activities of the office or agency, or matters
observed pursuant to duty imposed by law as to matters which there was a duty
to report, excluding in criminal cases matters observed by a police officer or
other law enforcement personnel, unless the sources of information or other
circumstances show their lack of trustworthiness. The criminal case exclusion
shall not apply to an affidavit otherwise admissible under s.
316.1934(5).
(9) RECORDS OF VITAL STATISTICS. Records or data
compilations, in any form, of births, fetal deaths, deaths, or marriages, if a
report was made to a public office pursuant to requirements of law. However,
nothing in this section shall be construed to make admissible any other
marriage of any party to any cause of action except for the purpose of
impeachment as set forth in s. 90.610.
(10) ABSENCE OF PUBLIC RECORD OR ENTRY. Evidence, in the form
of a certification in accord with s. 90.902, or in the form of testimony, that
diligent search failed to disclose a record, report, statement, or data
compilation or entry, when offered to prove the absence of the record, report,
statement, or data compilation or the nonoccurrence or nonexistence of a
matter of which a record, report, statement, or data compilation would
regularly have been made and preserved by a public office and
agency.
(11) RECORDS OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. Statements of
births, marriages, divorces, deaths, parentage, ancestry, relationship by
blood or marriage, or other similar facts of personal or family history
contained in a regularly kept record of a religious organization.
(12) MARRIAGE, BAPTISMAL, AND SIMILAR
CERTIFICATES. Statements of facts contained in a certificate that the
maker performed a marriage or other ceremony or administered a sacrament, when
such statement was certified by a member of the clergy, public official, or
other person authorized by the rules or practices of a religious organization
or by law to perform the act certified, and when such certificate purports to
have been issued at the time of the act or within a reasonable time
thereafter.
(13) FAMILY RECORDS. Statements of fact concerning personal
or family history in family Bibles, charts, engravings in rings, inscriptions
on family portraits, engravings on urns, crypts, or tombstones, or the
like.
(14) RECORDS OF DOCUMENTS AFFECTING AN INTEREST IN
PROPERTY. The record of a document purporting to establish or affect an
interest in property, as proof of the contents of the original recorded or
filed document and its execution and delivery by each person by whom it
purports to have been executed, if the record is a record of a public office
and an applicable statute authorized the recording or filing of the document
in the office.
(15) STATEMENTS IN DOCUMENTS AFFECTING AN INTEREST IN
PROPERTY. A statement contained in a document purporting to establish or
affect an interest in property, if the matter stated was relevant to the
purpose of the document, unless dealings with the property since the document
was made have been inconsistent with the truth of the statement or the purport
of the document.
(16) STATEMENTS IN ANCIENT DOCUMENTS. Statements in a
document in 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,
generally used and relied upon by the public or by persons in particular
occupations if, in the opinion of the court, the sources of information and
method of preparation were such as to justify their admission.
(18) ADMISSIONS. A statement that is offered against a party
and is:
(a) The party's own statement in either an individual or a
representative capacity;
(b) A statement of which the party has manifested an adoption or
belief in its truth;
(c) A statement by a person specifically authorized by the party to
make a statement concerning the subject;
(d) A statement by the party's agent or servant concerning a matter
within the scope of the agency or employment thereof, made during the
existence of the relationship; or
(e) A statement by a person who was a coconspirator of the party
during the course, and in furtherance, of the conspiracy. Upon request of
counsel, the court shall instruct the jury that the conspiracy itself and each
member's participation in it must be established by independent evidence,
either before the introduction of any evidence or before evidence is admitted
under this paragraph.
(19) REPUTATION CONCERNING PERSONAL OR FAMILY
HISTORY. Evidence of reputation:
(a) Among members of a person's family by blood, adoption, or
marriage;
(b) Among a person's associates; or
(c) In the community,
concerning a person's birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, death,
relationship by blood, adoption, or marriage, ancestry, or other similar fact
of personal or family history.
(20) REPUTATION CONCERNING BOUNDARIES OR GENERAL
HISTORY. Evidence of reputation:
(a) In a community, arising before the controversy about the
boundaries of, or customs affecting lands in, the community.
(b) About events of general history which are important to the
community, state, or nation where located.
(21) REPUTATION AS TO CHARACTER. Evidence of reputation of a
person's character among associates or in the community.
(22) FORMER TESTIMONY. Former testimony given by the
declarant at a civil trial, when used in a retrial of said trial involving
identical parties and the same facts.
(23) HEARSAY EXCEPTION; STATEMENT OF CHILD VICTIM.
(a) Unless the source of information or the method or circumstances
by which the statement is reported indicates a lack of trustworthiness, an
out-of-court statement made by a child victim with a physical, mental,
emotional, or developmental age of 11 or less describing any act of child
abuse or neglect, any act of sexual abuse against a child, the offense of
child abuse, the offense of aggravated child abuse, or any offense involving
an unlawful sexual act, contact, intrusion, or penetration performed in the
presence of, with, by, or on the declarant child, not otherwise admissible, is
admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding if:
1. The court finds in a hearing conducted outside the presence of
the jury that the time, content, and circumstances of the statement provide
sufficient safeguards of reliability. In making its determination, the court
may consider the mental and physical age and maturity of the child, the nature
and duration of the abuse or offense, the relationship of the child to the
offender, the reliability of the assertion, the reliability of the child
victim, and any other factor deemed appropriate; and
2. The child either:
a. Testifies; or
b. Is unavailable as a witness, provided that there is other
corroborative evidence of the abuse or offense. Unavailability shall include a
finding by the court that the child's participation in the trial or proceeding
would result in a substantial likelihood of severe emotional or mental harm,
in addition to findings pursuant to s. 90.804(1).
(b) In a criminal action, the defendant shall be notified no later
than 10 days before trial that a statement which qualifies as a hearsay
exception pursuant to this subsection will be offered as evidence at trial.
The notice shall include a written statement of the content of the child's
statement, the time at which the statement was made, the circumstances
surrounding the statement which indicate its reliability, and such other
particulars as necessary to provide full disclosure of the statement.
(c) The court shall make specific findings of fact, on the record, as
to the basis for its ruling under this subsection.
(24) HEARSAY EXCEPTION; STATEMENT OF ELDERLY PERSON OR DISABLED
ADULT.
(a) Unless the source of information or the method or circumstances
by which the statement is reported indicates a lack of trustworthiness, an
out-of-court statement made by an elderly person or disabled adult, as defined
in s. 825.101, describing any act of abuse or neglect, any act of
exploitation, the offense of battery or aggravated battery or assault or
aggravated assault or sexual battery, or any other violent act on the
declarant elderly person or disabled adult, not otherwise admissible, is
admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding if:
1. The court finds in a hearing conducted outside the presence of
the jury that the time, content, and circumstances of the statement provide
sufficient safeguards of reliability. In making its determination, the court
may consider the mental and physical age and maturity of the elderly person or
disabled adult, the nature and duration of the abuse or offense, the
relationship of the victim to the offender, the reliability of the assertion,
the reliability of the elderly person or disabled adult, and any other factor
deemed appropriate; and
2. The elderly person or disabled adult either:
a. Testifies; or
b. Is unavailable as a witness, provided that there is
corroborative evidence of the abuse or offense. Unavailability shall include a
finding by the court that the elderly person's or disabled adult's
participation in the trial or proceeding would result in a substantial
likelihood of severe emotional, mental, or physical harm, in addition to
findings pursuant to s. 90.804(1).
(b) In a criminal action, the defendant shall be notified no later
than 10 days before the trial that a statement which qualifies as a hearsay
exception pursuant to this subsection will be offered as evidence at trial.
The notice shall include a written statement of the content of the elderly
person's or disabled adult's statement, the time at which the statement was
made, the circumstances surrounding the statement which indicate its
reliability, and such other particulars as necessary to provide full
disclosure of the statement.
(c) The court shall make specific findings of fact, on the record, as
to the basis for its ruling under this subsection.
History: s. 1, ch. 76-237; s. 1, ch. 77-77; s. 1, ch. 77-174; ss. 20, 22, ch.
78-361; ss. 1, 2, ch. 78-379; s. 4, ch. 85-53; s. 11, ch. 87-224; s. 2, ch.
90-139; s. 3, ch. 90-174; s. 12, ch. 91-255; s. 498, ch. 95-147; s. 1, ch.
95-158.