§ Rule 406. Habit; routine practice

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Rule 406. Habit; routine practice

Evidence of the habit of a person or of the routine practice of an organization, whether corroborated or not and regardless of the presence of eyewitnesses, is relevant to prove that the conduct of the person or organization on a particular occasion was in conformity with the habit or routine practice.

Comment: This rule is identical to F.R.E. 406 and is consistent with Pennsylvania law. See Baldridge v. Matthews, 378 Pa. 566, 106 A.2d 809 (1954)(uniform practice of hotel permitted to establish conduct in conformity with practice). The concepts of “habit” and “routine practice” denote conduct that occurs with fixed regularity in repeated specific situations. Like the federal rule, Pa.R.E. 406 does not set forth the ways in which habit or routine practice may be proven, but leaves this for case-by-case determination. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Rivers, 537 Pa. 394, 644 A.2d 710 (1994) (allowing testimony based on familiarity with another's conduct); Baldridge, 378 Pa. at 570; 106 A.2d at 811 (testimony of uniform practice apparently permitted without examples of specific instances).

Evidence of habit must be distinguished from evidence of character. Character applies to a generalized propensity to act in a certain way without reference to specific conduct, and frequently contains a normative, or value-laden, component (e.g., a character for truthfulness). Habit connotes one's conduct in a precise factual context, and frequently involves mundane matters (e.g., recording the purpose for checks drawn). The Advisory Committee's Note to F.R.E. 406 sets forth a description of this distinction: “Character is a generalized description of one's disposition in respect to a general trait, such as honesty, temperance, or peacefulness.... A habit, on the other hand, is the person's regular practice of meeting a particular kind of situation with a specific type of conduct, such as the habit of going down a particular stairway two stairs at a time, or of giving the hand-signal for a left turn, or of alighting from railway cars while they are moving.” F.R.E. 406 advisory committee's note (quoting 1 McCormick, Evidence § 162).