Also known as: market quotation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Published price lists, directories, or other compilations that are generally relied on by the public or by persons in particular occupations.
Prairie Growers Cooperative sued Sunrise Foods in federal court for breach of a corn supply contract. To prove the contract price matched prevailing market rates, Prairie offered authenticated archived daily corn futures price tables from a major agricultural commodities exchange. Sunrise objected on hearsay grounds. The tables qualify for admission because they are standardized compilations routinely consulted by grain traders and processors to set contract prices.
Orion Foods sued its landlord Martin over the fair rent for lease renewal. Martin offered a subscription real estate analytics report showing average rent per square foot for comparable neighborhood properties. Brokers widely rely on the report when negotiating leases. The report is admissible because it constitutes a published compilation that professionals in the occupation routinely consult to determine market rents.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
No. The exception turns on whether the compilation is generally relied on by the public or by persons in a particular occupation. That industry-wide reliance itself supplies the circumstantial guarantee of trustworthiness, so live testimony from the compiler is unnecessary.
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The presence of gaps or proprietary adjustments does not automatically disqualify the compilation. The decisive question remains whether market participants generally rely on the final reported figures as a benchmark. Widespread professional use can satisfy the exception even when the data are not perfect.
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Yes. The rule does not require that the litigants personally consulted the compilation when forming their contract. It is enough that the type of document is generally relied on by persons in the relevant occupation.
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It can. When the disclaimer and industry practice show that users treat the figures merely as artificial starting points rather than reliable indicators of value, the compilation fails the general-reliance test and is inadmissible under the exception.
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