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So here's the situation:
A person practiced magic with a group. The person later leaves the group in a very rude way- they also leave their tools and stuff there, saying "I don't give a ******** what you do with this s**t!"

Among the stuff is a small written scroll for a spell- there is a certain expectation of privacy when the scroll is written, though people usually share them after the spell kind of like how people at a Chinese restaurant will pass around their fortune cookie slips.

The first question: is it ok to read that since they said they didn't care what was done with it and intentionally left it there?
The second question: Does the answer change if reading the scroll could heal members of the group from the spiritual and emotional abuse the person leaving caused?

Just as a background, there are no oaths in place- and if you think of other factors please feel free to put them in the response and list them as "assumptions".

I don't think you can ascribe one motive to it- like spite. It might be acting out of a desire for closure.

Does the temper tantrum when they say "do whatever the ******** you want!" play any part in the ethics from your POV?

Added: Is it unethical or just distasteful?

Burn, then bury, and maybe douse the spot in water. Never know what the spell was, so burning it could release whatever it is, but burying it should nullify it if that's the case.

You all know me. Ethics and moral are generally a personal thing. You just have to think about it from all the angles. So, say you guys, as a group, decide to read it. What if it doesn't provide any sort of closure at all and just makes things worse? Then what? You can't take back that you've read it. It's there, it's been seen, and if it impacts you that much, there's really no going back.

Or, you could not read it and just decide amongst yourselves to put it to rest and have a closure session, talk about what happened, and go from there.

Obviously, I don't know what happened, so I can't delve any deeper. But it might help you decide if you try and remove yourself from it and look down on the problem, see the whole thing and unbiased as possible.

As for me, I don't know if I'd read it or not.

By giving perspective on where the person was at when they did the harm.

I just figure that their actions and your own knowledge of them would be more useful for that than a spell they wrote. I don't know, maybe I just don't get it because I don't really look at spell writing as all that personal. I also don't do a lot of spell-writing. From that perspective it's not a big deal to read it but it probably won't be of any real use either.

However, if you really think it is that personal and would have that kind of information then I'd look at it more like a personal journal or diary. Sure, it might give you some insight but it's a real invasion.

Yes. From your description, it sounds like there was a lot of anger and hurt going on when they left. In that kind of a mood, people say things they don't really mean. I don't think it can really be taken as permission to read from that context. Have you tried talking this out with anyone else involved? They might have their own opinions and maybe just talking about it together would help more than going through the other person's stuff. You might find you don't need to read the thing, or you might all agree to read it and take whatever consequences come of it, good or ill, but if the situation affects the larger group, it could be an idea to give them all a say.

To me that isn't so much a question of ethics as safety. To me other people's stuff that has been magically charged has to be treated carefully. I mean if my friend gave me something magically charged ok cool I can probably trust. If someone like that leaves their stuff...I am at the very least dousing it if not something more stringent. You have no idea what power he or she put into their stuff.