A Sonesta Beach Resort executive who was one of the persons responsible for negotiating the terms of a new insurance contract never read or examined the original policy, a court heard yesterday.

And even though problems were discovered in the old policy, the executive never bothered to go back to the policy to seek any clarification.

Lucinda Callaghan, executive vice president of Sonesta Hotels International, spent a trying day on the stand yesterday as she endured penetrating cross examination from lawyer Saul Froomkin.

Part of Callaghan's numerous responsibilities for Sonesta included human resources.

She oversaw the administration of employee health insurance claims and negotiated the terms of the renewal with the insurance carrier Crown Life.

In 1992 she said Crown Life began to send forms to her office asking for medical information and this caused some disquiet because they had never done that before.

Nonetheless, Ms Callaghan admitted that she never checked the original policy to ascertain whether Crown Life was entitled to seek and receive this information.

Moreover, she conceded that although the Crown Life policy may have been among the documents she had in her office, she never actually read it.

Mr. Froomkin then asked:"How would you or your employees know what benefits they had under the policy?'' Ms Callaghan replied that she consulted the employee handbook and sought guidance from her fellow executives to fill in the areas where she was lacking.

And she said that despite never having read the Crown Life policy that had been in effect from 1985 until 1996, she was still part of the negotiating team that was seeking to change insurers to Colonial.

"How were you able to negotiate when you had not read the (Crown Life) policy,'' Mr. Froomkin asked.

Ms Callaghan replied she had spoken to fellow executives and from her own working knowledge of the financial impact of the increased claims Sonesta was experiencing.

The issue of insurance coverage is a central one for the civil case involving former Sonesta Beach executive David Boyd and Colonial Insurance.

Mr. Boyd was forced to leave his job due to chronic pain and he has brought an action against the insurance company which has denied him disability compensation.

David Boyd, the one-time president and managing director of the Sonesta Beach Hotel in Southampton, has already testified.

He currently resides in South Carolina. Mr. Boyd filed the suit against the Insurance company after they refused to provide him with disability insurance following his resignation from the hotel's top post nearly two years ago.

The case continues this morning before Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux. Lawyer Jai Pachai is representing Mr. Boyd.