Campbell v. Coleman Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
786 F.2d 892 (8th Cir. 1986)
Children injured by an exploding Coleman (defendant) lantern sued through their mother Campbell (plaintiff), disputing whether a manufacturing defect (Campbell's theory) or a third party's mishandling by Johnnie Lee Hayes (Coleman's theory) caused the explosion; Hayes gave a pretrial deposition supporting Campbell's defect theory, but both parties failed to locate him for trial, and Coleman instead introduced separate out-of-court statements Hayes made implicating himself, over Campbell's objection that his available deposition should be used instead. The trial judge admitted Hayes's out-of-court statements under the hearsay exception for statements against interest after finding Hayes physically unavailable, the jury found for Coleman, and Campbell appealed.
Whether, for purposes of the hearsay exception for statements against interest, a declarant's "unavailability" refers to the declarant's physical absence from trial or to the actual unavailability of the declarant's testimony.