a.

EXCEPTIONS to the Hearsay Rule:

i. What is a DYING DECLARATION? – ante mortem statement

o Declaration of a dying person, made under the consciousness of an
impending death … wherein his death is the subject of inquiry
o Evidence of the cause and surrounding circumstances of such death
o BASIS: no person would want to meet his maker with a lie on his lips

EXAMPLE: A was stabbed and bleeding profusely. B, his cousin, saw him lying on the ground.
When B asked A who did it to him, he mentioned C before he finally died. His statement as to his
assailant is considered as a dying declaration.

a. What are REQUISITES of a dying declaration?

1. Consciousness by the declarant of his impending death
2. Communication by the declarant of the cause and surrounding
circumstance of his looming death
3. Competence of the declarant to testify, and
4. Declaration is offered in any case relative to declarant’s death as the
subject of inquiry

b. Why is a dying declaration considered hearsay?

 Because of the possibility to misstate? Or that it is made out-of-court? hehe

c. Why is a dying declaration admissible?

o Because it is evidence of the highest order and is entitled to utmost credence
since no person aware of his impending death would make a careless and
false accusation
o MUST BE COMPLETE – that his statement of any given fact should be a
full expression of all that he intended to say as conveying his meaning in
respect of such fact

ii. What does res gestae mean?

 Things done

a. What are included as parts of the res gestae?

 Exclamations and statements made by either the participants, victims, or
spectators to a crime immediately before, during, or immediately after the
commission of the crime, when the circumstances are such that the
statements were made as a spontaneous reaction or utterance inspired by
the excitement of the occasion and there was no opportunity for the
declarant to deliberate and to fabricate a false statement
 Statements accompanying an equivocal act material to the issue and giving
it a legal significance

b. Requisites
1. Principal act, the res gestae, be a startling occurrence
 2. Statements were made before the declarant had the time to contrive or
devise a falsehood
3. Statements must concern the occurrence in question and its immediate
attending circumstances

iii. What is a SPONTANEOUS STATEMENT? – 1st kind of res gestae

 Statement/exclamation made immediately AFTER some exciting occasion
by a participant or spectator and asserting the circumstances of that
occasion as it is observed by him

EX: Suppose A was walking at the park and he was suddenly hit by a person behind him with a
rock, causing his head to crack open. A died almost instantly. B, a bystander who happened to have
seen the incident, cried out: He did it. he did it! He hit him! Assuming that B was nowhere to be
found but someone heard her uttered those words, B’s statement may be admitted under res gestae.

a. What are the requisites for its admission?

1. There is a startling occurrence as the principal act
2. There is no opportunity to contrive
3. Statement, under the stress of excitement caused by, and
4. relates to the occurrence

b. Why is this admissible?

 Under certain external circumstances of physical or mental shock, a stress
of nervous excitement may be produced in a spectator which stills the
reflective faculties and removes their control, so that the utterance which
then occurs is a spontaneous and sincere response to the actual sensations
and perceptions already produced by the external shock

iv. What is a VERBAL ACT? – 2nd kind of res gestae

 An act, relevant in some way under the issue, which needs for its full
purport to be construed together with the words of the actor

EX: A police officer arrests a man by placing his hand on his shoulder and
saying “I arrest you in the name of the law”

a. What are the requisites for its admission?

1. An equivocal principal act
2. Statement material to the issue
3. Statement must accompany the main act
4. Utterance must provide legal significance or elucidate the act

b. Why is this admissible?

 Main act itself was colorless and required to be made more definite in one
respect or another

v. What is mean by “res inter alios acta alteri nocere non debet”?

 Transaction between two parties ought not to operate to the peril of
another
  Things transacted between strangers do not injure those who are not
parties to them

a. What is the res inter alios acta rule?

 A man’s own acts are binding upon himself, and are evidence against him,
but not as against a third person.
 A party is not bound by any agreement of which he has no knowledge and
to which he has not given his consent and that his rights cannot be
prejudiced by the declaration, act or omission of another, EXCEPT by
virtue of a particular relation between them
 means that every act or omission results to corresponding
consequences which may be beneficial or harmful.

b. What are the two branches of the res inter alios rule? Get all the terms for these
branches.
1. A transaction between two parties ought not to operate to the peril of
another, or things transacted between strangers do not injure those
who are not parties to them. (Section 29, Rule 130)
2. Evidence that one did or did not do a certain thing at one time is not
admissible to prove that he or she did or did not do the same or
similar thing at another time; but it may be received to prove a
specific intent or knowledge, identity, plan, system, scheme, habit,
custom or usage, and the like. (Section 35, Rule 130)

c. What are the exceptions to the first branch? Give the requisites for their
admission?
1. 1ST BRANCH
1. Admission by co-partner or agent authorized by a party to
make such admission;
 There is an A/D
 A/D must be within the scope of the authority of the
partner/agent
 A/D must have been made during the existence of the
partnership/agency
 The partnership or agency must be shown by evidence
other than the act or D

2. Admission by a co-conspirator, when the conspiracy is

supported by other evidence;
 There is an A/D
 A/D must relate to the conspiracy
 Must have been made during the existence of the
conspiracy and not long after the conspiracy had been
brought to end
 Conspiracy must be shown by evidence other than such
A/D
 3. Admission between privies, made by a predecessor if the
successor still holds title
 There exists a relation of privity between the party and the declarant
 Admission was made by declarant as predecessor-in-interest while
holding title to property
 Admission is in relation to the property

d. What is an adoptive admission?

 a third person’s statement becomes the admission
of a party embracing or espousing it.
 (a) By conduct manifesting a party’s belief in the
truthfulness of the statement of a third person by
expressly or implicitly concurring with it; or responding in
such a way that manifests the adoption of the statement.
 (b) By a party’s refusal to refute an accusatory
statement that a reasonable person would refute under
the same or similar circumstances. 

1. What is the difference between adoptive admission and silent admission?

2. Why are these admissible in evidence?

vi. What are the exceptions to the second branch?

vii. For what purposes may a previous conduct be admitted in evidence?

 To establish specific intent or knowledge, identity, plac, system, scheme, ahbit,
custom, or usage, and the like

viii. Why are these admissible in evidence?

ix. What is a declaration against interest?

 Declaration made by a person deceased or unable to testify against the
interest of the declarant
 The fact asserted in the declaration was at the time it was made so far
contrary to declarant’s own interest that a reasonable person in his position
would not have made the declaration unless he believed it to be true

a. What are the requisites for its admissibility?

1. Declarant is dead or unable to testify
2. Adverse statement is made by the declarant on an actual or real interest
who is cognizant thereof
3. Declarant believed the declaration to be true
4. Statement is one against penal interest which exculpates the accused in a
criminal trial, there must be corroboration tending to guarantee the
statement’s trustworthiness

b. Why is this admissible?

  Necessity of the occasion renders the reception of such evidence advisable
 Reliability of such declarations asserts facts which are against his own
pecuniary or moral interest

x. What is pedigree?
 Succession of degrees from the origin
 Relationship
 Family Genealogy
 Birth, Marriage, Death dates when and the places where these facts
occurred
 Names of relatives
 Facts of family history

a. Give the requisites for the admissibility of a declaration about pedigree. – sec 41
1. Actor/declarant is dead/unable to testify
2. A/D is related to the subject either by birth, adoption, or marriage, or in
the absence thereof, with whose family he was so intimately associated as to
be likely to have accurate information concerning his pedigree
3. Proof of relationship between the D/A and the subject is established by
evidence other than by such act/declaration
4. A/D was made ante litem motam, or previous to the controversy

b. Give the requisites for the admissibility of reputation regarding pedigree. – sec
42
1. Witness who testifies is related to the subject either by consanguinity,
affinity, or adoption
2. Existence of such reputation or tradition in the family ante litem motam

c. Give the requisites for the admissibility of tradition regarding pedigree.

xi. What is reputation?

 General estimate of the person by the community as a whole
 Presupposes the existence of a general belief already formed on which the
general opinion is founded

a. How is reputation different from character?

 R – opinion of him by others
 C- inherent qualities of a person

b. What is tradition?
 This refers to the knowledge or beliefs of a certain family
handed from one generation to another, or to practices or
customs which are consistently observed or engaged in
by said family. A member of said family is the one
testifying to these matters.
c. What are the requisites for the admission of common reputation?
1. There is a common reputation
 2. CR existed previous to the controversy
3. That it relates to boundaries of or customs affecting lands in the
community and reputation as to vents of general history important, or
respecting marriage or moral character

xii. What are the REQUISITES for the ADMISSION OF ENTRIES IN OFFICIAL
RECORDS?
1. Entries were made by a public officer in the regular performance of his
duties or by a person in the performance of a duty specially enjoined by law
2. Personal cognition of the facts stated on the entry, or such facts were
acquired from official information

xiii. What are the requisites for the admission of commercial lists?
1. That the document is a statement of matters of interest to persons engaged
in an occupation
2. Such statement is contained in a list, register, periodical or other published
compilation
3. Said compilation is published for the use of persons engaged in that
occupation
4. It is generally used and relied upon by persons in the same occupation

b. Give five examples of evidence which are similar to commercial lists.

1. Mortality tables – Carlisle or Wigglesworth Tables
2. Actuarial and annuity tables
3. Unofficial reports or judicial decisions

xiv. What is a learned treatise?

 Published treatise, periodical or pamphlet on a subject of history, law,
science or art tending to prove the truth of a matter stated therein

a. When is a learned treatise not considered hearsay?

 When an expert is given an opportunity to rebut or explain the material, to
give a reaction to the work and the basis for this reaction

b. What are the requisites for the admission of a learned treatise?

1. The court takes judicial notice thereof
2. The work is testified to by a witness, equally acknowledged as an expert in
the same field of study
3. That the writer of the statement in the treatise, periodical or pamphlet is
recognized in his profession or calling as an expert in the subject

xv. Give 5 instances, not covered by the given exceptions, when hearsay evidence
may be allowed – RESIDUAL EXCEPTIONS
1. Statement possesses circumstantial guarantee of trustworthiness akin to
specific hearsay evidence exceptions
2. Statement is offered as evidence of a material fact
3. Statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any
other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts
4. Admission of the evidence will serve the purpose of the rules and justice
5. The proponent notifies the opponent of the intention to offer the statement,
with details of the name and address of the declarant, sufficiently in
advance of the hearing, or pretrial conference as prelude to trial, for the
adverse party’s fair opportunity to meet the intention