The Guarantor

(1) Action for breach of contract. P Bank contends that the alleged contract was contained in a typewritten letter from D to the bank authorizing the bank to pay checks to X, which D would cover. D admits sending the letter but disputes the terms.

At trial the bank's attorney calls C, the head cashier, to testify that he received the letter, read it, and filed it but that a new file clerk, S, mistakenly threw out the file during a regular purge of old files. C is asked what the letter said. D objects. What ruling and why?

(2) As part of his rebuttal case, D attempts to testify to the terms of the letter. P objects. On voir dire it is disclosed that D made a longhand copy of the letter before he sent it and that this copy is in his office in Chicago. D testifies that he did not bring it with him to the trial because he thought that P would bring its original. What ruling and why?