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Question
In a civil action for breach of a Joint Venture Agreement, the plaintiff seeks to admit into evidence an electronic Joint Venture Agreement stored in the defendant company’s cloud-based contract management system. The agreement bears an electronic signature created by the defendant’s general manager using his private key and a CA-issued digital certificate. The general manager denies signing. The plaintiff offers: (i) the CA-issued digital certificate, (ii) a trusted time-stamp attached to the signature, (iii) server logs showing the general manager’s login from the company’s network during the signing window, (iv) a cryptographic hash chain documenting the document’s integrity at signing, and (v) an internal audit trail within the signing platform showing the signing sequence and approvals. The defense objects on authenticity. Complicating factor: the CA certificate used to validate the signature was revoked one week after signing due to a suspected compromise. (a) Is the electronic Joint Venture Agreement admissible under A.M. No. 01-7-01-SC, Rules 3-6? (b) What must be shown to authenticate the electronic signature and to establish the document’s integrity? (c) If the certificate is revoked after signing, how should the court treat the weight and admissibility of the electronic agreement, and what implications arise for the signatory’s attribution of the signature?