CALIFORNIA EVIDENCE: CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
...Foundation Issues
......Facts to be Redetermined by Jury
.........General Rule
13 Cards On This Topic:
  • Questions of relevancy, personal knowledge, authentication or identity of hearsay declarant, are inadmissible unless proponent has met burden.
  • Court may conditionally admit proffered evidence, subject to subsequent proof of preliminary fact.
  • Upon request, court shall instruct jury to determine whether preliminary fact exists and to disregard proffered evidence unless it does.
  • If proffered evidence admitted conditionally and court subsequently determines it should not have been admitted, then court shall instruct jury to disregard it.
  • D has constitutional right to have jury determine materiality of false statements made to HUD.
  • D's requested instruction, that witness was an accomplice, was properly denied as question whether witness was an accomplice was an issue for the jury.
  • Court's authority to allow a witness to answer on a provisional basis, subject to a motion to strike, is recognized in EC 403, as well as in other contexts.
  • Trial ct. had no duty to conduct EC 402 hearing sua sponte and no limiting instruction required—issues regarding witness's credibility are properly left to the jury, and not a proper subject of an EC 402 hearing.
  • Jury may reasonably have inferred D made hang-up calls to V's residence night before murder, having stolen her wallet with unlisted number the day before.
  • Trial court did not err in not finding Ws accomplices as matter of law where it was a question for the jury.
  • If evidence of preliminary fact sufficient to sustain finding either way, court should admit evidence and let jury decide question.
  • Evidence admissible if sufficient for reasonable trier of fact to find preliminary fact exists; lesser burden of proof than preponderance of evidence.
  • Sole duty of trial court is to decide whether sufficient basis exists to admit evidence and let jury determine value.