HARRY HUGHES, Governor

2685

Approved May 19, 1981.

CHAPTER 720

(Senate Bill 304)

AN ACT concerning

Evidence - Admissibility of Duplicates and Photographs

FOR the purpose of providing for the admissibility in
evidence of certain duplicates and photographs under
certain circumstances; and defining certain terms.

BY adding to

Article - Courts and Judicial Proceedings

Section 10-103

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1980 Replacement Volume and 1980 Supplement)

Preamble

WHEREAS, To prove the content of a writing, recording,
or photograph, the original writing, recording, or
photograph is required; and

WHEREAS, Cases arise where certain photocopies do not
fall within the ambit of § 10-102 of the Courts and Judicial
Proceedings Article because they were not made in the
regular course of business; and

WHEREAS, Insofar as the primary purpose of the original
documents requirement is directed at securing accurate
information from the contents of material writings free of
the infirmities of memory and the mistakes of hand-copying,
the General Assembly concludes that the various methods of
mechanical copying fulfill the purpose; insistence upon the
original, or accounting for it, places costs, burdens of
planning and hazards of mistake upon litigants; now,
therefore,

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
be repealed, amended, or enacted to read as follows:

Article - Courts and Judicial Proceedings

10-103.

(A) IN THIS SECTION, THE FOLLOWING WORDS HAVE THE
MEANINGS INDICATED: