Echo Acceptance Corp. v. Household Retail Services, Inc.

267 F.3d 1068 (10th Cir. 2001)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Echosphere manufactures and sells home satellite television systems, and P is an Echosphere subsidiary organized to facilitate the financing of such sales. Echosphere referred many of its customers to P. P would then enter a loan agreement with the customer, pursuant to which P agreed to finance the system for the customer. P then sold the loan agreements to an ultimate financier. P entered a Merchandise Financing Agreement ('MFA') with D, a private label credit card company and this dispute developed. The casebook skips details of what happened. P got the verdict and D appealed claiming that the court erred in sustaining P’s hearsay objections to the admission of three letters from D. D claims they were admissible under 803(6), the business records exception. The court determined that the letters constituted legal 'posturing,' drafted by lawyers in anticipation of litigation and that Rule 803(6) was therefore inapplicable.