Case Name: Felix Poplawski, Respondent, v. Lola M. Cook, Appellant
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1925-03-19
Citations: 124 Misc. 668
Docket Number: 
Parties: Felix Poplawski, Respondent, v. Lola M. Cook, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Miscellaneous Reports
Volume: 124
Pages: 668–669

Head Matter:
Felix Poplawski, Respondent, v. Lola M. Cook, Appellant.
Supreme Court, Appellate Term, First Department,
March 19, 1925.
Trial — examination of witnesses through interpreter — trial suspended where competent interpreter cannot be secured.
Where the examination of witnesses must be conducted through an interpreter, the services of a competent and qualified one should be secured, and where this is impossible, the trial should be suspended and the case remanded to the calendar.
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Municipal Court of the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan, Fourth District, in favor of plaintiff.
Morris Spevack [Hyman E. Kamen of counsel], for the appellant.
Smith, Heymsfeld & Weiss [Nicholas A. Heymsfeld and David T. Smith of counsel], for the respondent.

Opinion:
Per Curiam:
One of the essential elements in the proper conduct of a trial in our courts is a fair opportunity to examine witnesses and cross-examine them in order to arrive at the truth of the facts which are the basis of the litigation. Where the examination must be necessarily conducted through an interpreter, the services of a competent and a qualified one should be secured, because it is through a competent and qualified interpreter that the truth can be arrived at. If in this case it was impossible, as the record shows, to secure one, then the trial should have been suspended and the case remanded to the calendar. (Mennella v. Metropolitan Street Railway Co., 43 Misc. 5.) The motion for withdrawal of a juror made by the defendant should have been granted.
Judgment reversed and a new trial ordered, with thirty dollars costs to the appellant to abide the event.
All concur; present, Bijur, Mullan and Cotillo, JJ.