Q: Defending my right to say hearsay testimony about what the employees of defendants told me. Maryland district court
I’m representing my self in district court in Maryland , I sued my landlord for mold. I did opening statements and gave testimony. But when I wanted to say what the employees of the defendant told me or what the remediation guys told me it was objected. I defended saying that it is one of the exceptions of hearsay rules. I should be able to say what opposing party or their agents told me. The case will continue next week and I would like to make a motion to allow me to say that stuff. Is my assumption correct. Can you please help me in making this argument based perhaps on case law ? At this point is only one week so probably will have to bring that to court.
A: In order to admit the statements of an employee of the defendant in the case as an admission against interest, you must first lay an evidentiary foundation for the admissibility of the statement. This requires that you first present evidence of (1) the identity (name) of the alleged employee; (2) his/her employment status with the defendant (how do you and the court know he/she was an employee); and (3) the statements you wish the court to hear were made concerning a matter within the employee's scope of employment. For instance, a cashier in the checkout line of a store would not necessarily be making an admission binding on the store if they opined that a shelf display was not stocked properly by the stock clerk who set the display up, if such work was not what the cashier was trained to perform. That does not mean the cashier could not be called as a witness to describe what they saw and how the display appeared to them, but it would not necessarily be an admission. So, you would need to subpoena that employee. One of the reasons you serve interrogatories is to ask these questions: name all store employees in the vicinity of the event, their job titles and duties, what they saw and/or reported, etc.
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