Art. 805 Hearsay within hearsay

Sometimes a statement contains another statement inside it, and both are technically hearsay. For example, someone might testify that "John told me that Mary said the light was red." Here you have two layers: what John told the witness, and what Mary supposedly said.

This rule says that layered hearsay like this can still be allowed as evidence, but only if each layer separately fits into one of the recognized exceptions to the hearsay rule. It's not enough for just one part of the statement to qualify. Every single layer has to have its own valid exception before a judge will let the whole thing in.

In practice, this means a lawyer trying to use this kind of evidence has to break it down piece by piece. They need to show why the first statement is allowed under an exception, and then separately show why the second statement inside it is also allowed. If any layer fails to meet an exception, that part of the statement (or the whole thing, depending on the situation) can get excluded from the case.