You are on your own....Im with Yahoo on this one.
Reading the posts, looks like there is no consensus on this issue. I chose the side of the family instead of the company. The Marine is gone and is in no pain, his family is. Yahoo has nothing to gain or lose in this. I view this e-mail issue as no different than any of his other personal effects that are left to the next of kin. A lawyer FReeper has posted the legal hurdles he went thru with AOL in a similar situation. In the end, he won. I hope the family of this Marine does , too. Sure, there may be things in there that he may have wanted to be private for whatever reason. But, I believe his family needs and deserves the access to his e-mails.....