Opinion
No. 4608
Decided January 24, 1952.
Evidence — Business records — Section 12102-23, General Code — Records of liquor department prepared by accountant without personal knowledge — Information submitted by employees throughout state — Not admissible, when — Self-serving declarations in copies of letters inadmissible.
1. Business records of the Department of Liquor Control compiled without personal knowledge of the facts incorporated therein by an accountant at the department's headquarters office from information furnished by liquor store employees throughout the state covering a period of years, which records purport to state the extent of damage to shipments of liquor received at the state's warehouse and which show only the date and amount of damage claimed, are not admissible in evidence under Section 12102-23, General Code, unless "in the opinion of the court the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to justify" their admission.
2. Carbon copies of letters containing self-serving declarations sent by a party to the adverse party are not admissible in evidence.
APPEAL: Court of Appeals for Franklin county.
Mr. Albert Spievack and Mr. Sol Goodman, for appellee.
Mr. C. William O'Neill, attorney general, Mr. Thomas R. Lloyd and Mr. Brown W. Pettit, for appellant.
This is an appeal on questions of law from the Common Pleas Court of Franklin County, which court rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff in an action to recover money withheld by defendant to cover breakage on liquor purchased, which was shipped and delivered to defendant's warehouse.
The two errors assigned are that the court improperly excluded evidence offered by defendant.
Business records of the Department of Liquor Control compiled by an accountant at the department office in Columbus from information furnished by agents in the different liquor stores throughout the state covering a period of years, which purported to state the extent of damage to shipments of liquor when received at the state warehouse and which show only date and amount claimed, where the witness does not have personal knowledge of the facts, are not admissible under Section 12102-23, General Code, unless, "in the opinion of the court, the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to justify" their admission. Such records were properly excluded under Section 12102-23, General Code, as construed in Schmitt v. Doehler Die Casting Co., 143 Ohio St. 421, 55 N.E.2d 644; Weiss v. Weiss, 147 Ohio St. 416, 72 N.E.2d 245, 169 A. L. R., 668; Green v. City of Cleveland, 150 Ohio St. 441, 83 N.E.2d 63; Zeigler Milling Co. v. Denman, 79 Ohio App. 250, 72 N.E.2d 686; Eikenberry v. McFall, 33 Ohio Law Abs., 525, 36 N.E.2d 27.
Carbon copies of letters sent by defendant to plaintiff which contain self-serving declarations are inadmissible. Zeigler Milling Co. v. Denman, supra; Dickson, an Infant, v. Gastl, 64 Ohio App. 346, 28 N.E.2d 688; 17 Ohio Jurisprudence, 304, Section 237.
Judgment affirmed.
HORNBECK, P. J., and MILLER, J., concur.