## Facts

- Connie Wright attended a teachers’ conference at a Ramada Inn in Paintsville, Kentucky, owned and operated by James A. Brown Enterprises, LLC (the hotel).
- Wright fell while descending a short flight of stairs in the hotel’s lobby and suffered injuries.
- A central disputed fact at trial was where, on the stairs, Wright fell.
- Wright maintained she fell from the second-from-the-bottom step.
- The hotel maintained Wright fell from the bottom step.
- After the fall, Wright went to an emergency room. Wright made a statement to emergency-room staff that she had fallen down two steps.
- That statement was recorded by emergency-room personnel in a medical record.
- At trial, Wright offered the emergency-room record to support her account of the fall and to counter the hotel’s position about where she fell.
- The trial court excluded the record, concluding Wright did not lay a proper foundation to admit it as a business record under Kentucky Rule of Evidence (KRE) 803(6).
- The case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict for the hotel. Wright appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court abused its discretion by excluding the emergency-room record reflecting Wright’s statement that she “fell down two steps” for failure to establish admissibility under KRE 803(6).
2. If exclusion was error, whether Wright was entitled to relief on appeal absent a showing that the ruling affected her substantial rights (harmless-error review).

## Decision

- The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment entered on the jury’s verdict for the hotel.
- The court held the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the emergency-room record because Wright failed to establish the foundation required to admit it under KRE 803(6).
- The court further concluded Wright was not entitled to reversal because she did not show the exclusion affected her substantial rights.

## Legal Principles

- Trial-court evidentiary rulings are reviewed for abuse of discretion.
- The business-records exception (KRE 803(6)) requires a proper foundation—generally through a custodian or other qualified witness—showing the record was made at or near the time of the event by (or from information transmitted by) a person with knowledge, kept in the regular course of business, and made as a regular practice of that business activity.
- When a document contains layered out-of-court statements, each layer must be independently admissible under an exception or exclusion from the hearsay rule.
- Even if a trial court errs in an evidentiary ruling, an appellate court will not reverse unless the error affected the appellant’s substantial rights (harmless-error principles).

## Conclusion

In this premises-liability case arising from Wright’s fall on a hotel stairway, the Court of Appeals affirmed a defense verdict after concluding the trial court acted within its discretion in excluding an emergency-room record that included Wright’s statement that she “fell down two steps,” because Wright did not establish the foundation required by KRE 803(6) and did not show the exclusion warranted relief on appeal.


Wright v. James A. Brown Enterprises, LLC, No. 2012-CA-001533-MR, 2014 Ky. App. Unpub. LEXIS 53 (2014)