43 Misc. 5 | N.Y. App. Term. | 1904
Lead Opinion
At the trial plaintiff’s complaint was dismissed before he had finished his case. The plaintiff and his parents are Italians, and the principal reason which led to the dismissal was that the plaintiff had failed to have an unobjectionable Italian interpreter in court, through whom his mother, who did not understand English, could be examined. The first man proposed for that purpose appeared
Statutes for the appointment of official interpreters in certain courts exist to enable said courts to proceed promptly with their assistance, but the duty to appoint as occasion requires remains irrespective of statute. A poor litigant as well as a rich one is entitled to his day in court and to a respectful hearing, and in so far as he cannot present his case, except through an interpreter, it is right to be heard in that way. It would be a denial of justice to make such right depend upon the consent of the defendant. The plaintiff, an infant, brought this action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by being run down by a car of the defendant ; his mother, although not an eye witness to- the accident, was evidently called to show his age and what kind of an infant he was. The defendant seeks to uphold the judgment on the ground that the testimony of two witnesses to the accident, who were produced by the plaintiff, showed that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence. Assuming for a moment that such claim would be tenable if the plaintiff had been an adult, it might, under the circumstances of this case, have become untenable if the plaintiff had been permitted to show that he was at the time a child of such tender years that as against him a different rule should be applied, and • consequently the testimony of his mother, if taken, might have carried the case to the jury upon this point.
The judgment must be reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.
Davis, J., concurs.
Concurrence Opinion
Two exceptions only appear in the case; one is worthless, because to the exclusion of an indefinite question already answered; the other, which is probably good, being to the dismissal of the complaint when there was some evidence to be submitted to the jury. In view, however, of the animadversions in the brief for the plaintiff-appellant, it is proper to remark that it was the duty of his attorney and counsel, not only to acquaint himself with the facts necessary to support the infant’s cause of action, but also to see to it that that evidence would and could be presented. If, as he apparently well knew, the witnesses could not speak the vernacular to the court, it was his duty to secure the presence of an interpreter, not only linguistically competent, but also qualified to interpret the statements of the witnesses in a manner to command the confidence of the jurors and of the court. That the person prof-erred as interpreter is friendly to the parties, and even that he is friendly to one of the parties, is not cause of his exclusion but goes' to the credibility of his interpretation. People v. Ramirez, 56 Cal. 533.
The function of an interpreter is much like the function of an expert, and like any other expert the interpreter’s qualification must be shown either by his own oath or by the
Judgment reversed and new trial ordered, with costs to appellant to abide event.