Opinion ID: 675124
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The letter from Phoenix to Jack dated October 31, 1990

Text: 65 Regarding the letter of October 31, 1990, written to Jack from Barbara Gregory, an agent of Phoenix, the district court held the letter and the information contained in the letter admissible. The letter, outlining the actions Bill took to change the beneficiary of his policy from Jack to Rosita and explaining that Bill did not comply precisely with the policy's change of beneficiary's provisions, contains hearsay within hearsay. Phoenix obtained some of the information contained in the letter from Texfi employees. The letter includes the following statement: Bill said he wanted to change the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. The district court admitted this statement pursuant to Rule 803(3) as a statement of Bill's intent. As Jack has argued, however, 803(3) requires a statement by the declarant, and the October 31 letter does not contain a statement by Bill. The letter does refer to records submitted by Texfi, which presumably included Holcombe's handwritten note recording a statement by Bill. The levels of hearsay, however, multiply under this analysis. 66 The court has also noted that the letter in itself is arguably hearsay but that Phoenix responded to a request for an admission by acknowledging that the letter was authentic and was a record of regularly conducted business activity within the meaning of Rule 803(6). As a prelude to its admissions, however, Phoenix specifically disavowed any admission with regard to the truthfulness of information verifiable only by persons or entities beyond its control including Texfi and its agents and employees. In addition, Phoenix qualified its admissions by objecting to the requests to admit to the extent that they required Phoenix to admit that conduct by others such as Texfi constituted regularly conducted activity for any person or entity other than Phoenix. It would seem that these qualifications render Phoenix's admission irrelevant to the admissibility of the hearsay within hearsay as to Bill's intent as discerned by Texfi. Because the letter does not fall within a recognized exception to the hearsay rule, it should have been excluded. 67 In any event, the letter to Jack recounting his father's attempt to change his beneficiary is not necessary to prove Bill's intent in light of the other evidence in the record.