In re French
United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama
No. 98-0681-S, 1999 U.S. Dist. Lexis 16933 (1999)
Facts
Joseph French had a life-insurance policy through his employer, the United Parcel Service (UPS). When UPS employees were hired at the time French was, they filled out a life-insurance beneficiary-designation card. A UPS employee then entered the designee information into a computer, and the card was sent to storage with other personnel files. When French died, he was survived Tonya French (Tonya), his wife, and Patricia French (Patricia), his mother. Mary Arrington, an administrative assistant at UPS, accessed French’s electronic file and saw that Patricia was named as French’s life-insurance beneficiary. Arrington obtained French’s hardcopy personnel file from storage, but the life-insurance beneficiary-designation card was not in the file. Further, soon after French’s death, UPS ceased using the old computer program, and the electronic file indicating French’s beneficiary was lost or destroyed. Both Patricia and Tonya claimed to be French’s beneficiary. Patricia called Arrington as a witness to testify to what she had seen in the electronic file before it was destroyed. Tonya objected to this testimony, arguing that it violated the best-evidence rule.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Steele, J.)
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