U.S. Bank Trust, N.A. v. Jones, 925 F.3d 534

Background

U.S. Bank sued Julia Jones for breach of a mortgage promissory note after she stopped making payments; at trial Bank sought judgment based on an account summary/transaction history (Exhibit 8) printed from Caliber Home Loans' servicing database.
Exhibit 8 included transaction entries originally created by prior servicers (Seterus and Bank of America) that had been incorporated into Caliber's records when Caliber became servicer.
Caliber employee Letycia Lopez testified about how Caliber maintained its records, that Caliber incorporated and reviewed prior servicers' records, and that Exhibit 8 was a printout accurately reflecting Caliber's database.
The district court admitted Exhibit 8 under the Federal Rules of Evidence and entered judgment for U.S. Bank for $226,458.28, including approximately $23,000 in escrow, title, and inspection charges.
On appeal Jones challenged admissibility under Fed. R. Evid. 803(6) (business records), Rules 901/1001/1002 (authentication/originals), and the inclusion of certain post-default charges; the First Circuit affirmed.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility under Fed. R. Evid. 803(6) of a servicing printout integrating prior servicers' entries	Exhibit 8 is a regular business record of Caliber reflecting the account; Caliber verified and relied on incorporated records, satisfying 803(6)	Integrated third-party entries require testimony from custodians/qualified witnesses of prior servicers; successor's testimony alone is insufficient	Admission proper: successor's qualified witness testified to recordkeeping, verification, and Caliber's reliance; integrated records may be admitted case-by-case when sufficiently reliable
Authentication and original-document rules (Rules 901, 1001, 1002) for an electronic printout	Lopez's testimony that Exhibit 8 was a printout accurately reflecting Caliber's database satisfied authentication and "original" requirements	Lopez failed to describe system/process as contemplated by Rule 901(b)(9), so printout was unreliable	Admission proper: testimony of a knowledgeable employee sufficed to authenticate and treat the printout as an original under the rules
Reliance interest of a servicer (Caliber) as indicium of trustworthiness	Caliber having a financial/business relationship with U.S. Bank provides incentive to ensure accuracy of incorporated records	Caliber is only a contractor servicing accounts; ultimate loss would fall on U.S. Bank, so Caliber lacks sufficient self-interest to guarantee accuracy	Court accepted that Caliber's business interest and effect on reputation/contracting provided sufficient incentive to rely on and verify records
Recovery of escrow, title fees, inspections under the promissory note	These are "costs and expenses in enforcing this Note" and were incurred because of Jones's breach	Such charges were not recoverable under the note (raised only on appeal)	Affirmed: charges fall within recoverable "costs and expenses"; claim reviewed for plain error and not shown to be plainly wrong

Key Cases Cited

Bradley v. Sugarbaker, 891 F.3d 29 (1st Cir.) (standard of review for evidentiary rulings)
Clukey v. Town of Camden, 894 F.3d 25 (1st Cir.) (deference to district court's discretionary evidentiary rulings)
Paolino v. JF Realty, 830 F.3d 8 (1st Cir.) (review standards)
United States v. Savarese, 686 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.) (admissibility of third-party integrated records depends on facts)
FTC v. Direct Marketing Concepts, Inc., 624 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.) (admitted records where third-party entries were intimately integrated)
United States v. Doe, 960 F.2d 221 (1st Cir.) (reliance on third-party records by the producing business supports admissibility)
United States v. Vigneau, 187 F.3d 70 (1st Cir.) (rejection of integrated records where no verification or self-interest existed)
Wallace Motor Sales, Inc. v. Am. Motors Sales Corp., 780 F.2d 1049 (1st Cir.) (definition of a "qualified witness" for business records)
United States v. Espinal-Almeida, 699 F.3d 588 (1st Cir.) (authentication may be shown by testimony of a knowledgeable person about electronic system results)
Downey v. Bob's Discount Furniture Holdings, Inc., 633 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.) (federal courts apply Federal Rules of Evidence in diversity cases)
Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (U.S.) (choice-of-law principle referenced regarding substantive state rules)
Beneficial Me. Inc. v. Carter, 25 A.3d 96 (Me.) (Maine permits admission of integrated records when reliability is shown)