Opinion ID: 786763
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fed.R.Evid. 402 and 403

Text: 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.