Opinion ID: 786763
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: William Feist's Deposition

Text: 74 As discussed, Fed.R.Evid. 702 contemplates a broad conception of expert qualifications. Thomas, 42 F.3d at 1269 (emphasis added). Though it is somewhat unclear whether Feist testified as an expert witness or a percipient witness, the district court nonetheless held an extensive hearing on the Feist deposition, and gave detailed reasons for finding Feist sufficiently qualified as either an expert or percipient witness. Feist, a board-certified specialist in insurance medicine and Provident's vice-president and director of its medical department through 1996, has been educated on insurance policy law and disability policy language. At Provident he was active in the practice of claims adjudication where he participated in round tables in which Provident employees discussed terminating disability policies. He is also familiar with insurance policy ethics from educational and practical experience. 75 The district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in finding Feist qualified to discuss Provident's handling of disability claims.
76 Defendants argue that the district court erred in finding Feist unavailable. Feist's residence in Alabama placed him outside of the court's subpoena power under Fed.R.Civ.P. 45, and he was thus unavailable pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 32(a)(3), which permits deposition testimony where the witness is at a greater distance than 100 miles from the place of trial or hearing. The admitted deposition was from the Alameda County Superior Court case United Policyholders v. Provident Life and Accident Ins. Co., UnumProvident Corp., and Bay Brook Med. Group. In the United Policyholders case, a partner of Defendants' counsel, representing Provident Life & Accident Insurance Co. and UnumProvident, cross-examined Feist. Defendants therefore had ample opportunity to cross-examine Feist and satisfied Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(1). See Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(1) (Testimony given ... in a deposition ... [is admissible where] the party against whom the testimony is now offered, or, in a civil action or proceeding, a predecessor in interest, had an opportunity and similar motive to develop the testimony by direct, cross, or redirect examination.).
77 To be admissible, evidence must be relevant under Fed.R.Evid. 402 and its probative value must not be substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice under Fed.R.Evid. 403. Defendants argue that Feist's testimony regarding the claims-handling procedures at Provident should have been excluded because it bore no direct relationship to Paul Revere's handling of Hangarter's claim and was therefore irrelevant and prejudicial. 78 The jury could have reasonably inferred that the claims handling procedures at Provident were carried over to Paul Revere as a subsidiary of UnumProvident after Unum and Provident merged. This inference was not unwarranted given that Ralph Mohney controlled claims-handling at both Provident and Paul Revere and Paul Revere's handling of Hangarter's claim employed practices similar to those used at Provident. See Murray v. Toyota Motor Distribs., Inc., 664 F.2d 1377, 1379-80 (9th Cir.1982) (ruling admissible deposition testimony of an unavailable former employee of a company against an affiliated company with a similar motive where both affiliates were controlled by the same parent company). 16 Moreover, the deposition was corroborated by a number of internal Provident and Paul Revere documents, and by the testimony of Chris Ryan, Ralph Mohney, Joseph Sullivan, Sandra Fryc, and Frank Caliri. Any possible prejudice caused by the deposition was thus marginal. 79 The district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Feist's deposition was relevant to Hangarter's claims.