Short answer. Yes, if you follow the required steps. Rule 130, Section 6 requires that you give the adverse party reasonable notice to produce the document. If, after that notice and satisfactory proof the document exists, the adverse party still fails to produce it, secondary evidence may be presented as in the case of a lost document.
What the law says
If the document is in the custody or under the control of the adverse party, he or she must have reasonable notice to produce it.
Rule 130, Section 6 — When original document is in adverse party s custody or control. Read the full provision →
What the law says
If after such notice and after satisfactory proof of its existence, he or she fails to produce the document, secondary evidence may be presented as in the case of its loss.
Rule 130, Section 6 — When original document is in adverse party s custody or control. Read the full provision →
Reasonable notice comes first
Section 6 does not let a party jump straight to secondary evidence just because the adverse party has the original. The document's holder must first be given reasonable notice to produce it — a formal step that puts the adverse party on record notice of the demand before anything else follows. Skipping this step and going straight to secondary evidence risks having that evidence excluded for failing to satisfy the section's prerequisites. Reasonable notice gives the adverse party a genuine chance to produce the document voluntarily, which serves the rule's underlying preference for original documents whenever they can actually be produced, rather than letting a party bypass that preference merely by asserting the original is unavailable.
Proving the document exists
Notice alone is not enough to unlock secondary evidence. The rule also requires satisfactory proof of the document's existence — you must be able to show the document is real and in the adverse party's custody or control, not merely assert that it exists. This existence requirement prevents a party from fabricating a claim that some document exists, simply to justify introducing unverified secondary evidence in its place. It also protects the adverse party, who might otherwise be forced to respond to a demand for a document that never existed in the first place, or that has no real bearing on the case.
What happens if the adverse party still refuses
Only after both reasonable notice and satisfactory proof of existence, if the adverse party still fails to produce the document, may secondary evidence be presented — treated the same way the rule treats evidence of a document's contents when the original has been lost. At that point, the secondary evidence is treated procedurally the same way loss of the original would be treated under the general Original Document Rule, meaning the same secondary-evidence hierarchy that applies to a lost original, such as a copy or a recital of contents in some authentic document, and testimony of witnesses, applies here as well.