Thursday, September 10, 2026
Page 3
Court of Appeal:
Jury-Room Translations Not Enough to Upend Civil Judgment
Opinion Says No Error in Denial of New Trial Due to Evidence That One Juror, Who Complained of Limited English Skills During Voir Dire, Required Spanish Interpretation from Other Panelists
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Div. Five of this district’s Court of Appeal has rejected a plaintiff’s assertion that a trial judge erred in denying her request for a new trial after declarations were submitted from members of the panel indicating that some jurors had provided translation services to another panelist, who had expressed concerns over her English skills during voir dire.
Presiding Justice Brian M. Hoffstadt authored Tuesday’s unpublished opinion, saying:
“The trial court did not err in denying plaintiffs’ new trial motion on the ground that [the juror’s] difficulty with the English language rendered her incapable of serving on the jury….At most, there is evidence that [the panelist] needed help understanding ‘one or two technical terms’ on the verdict form. That is insufficient to render her incompetent to serve as a juror.”
Unpersuaded that the jury-room translations on the form and some during the trial amounted to the introduction of extrinsic evidence, he commented that case law finding such interpretative services to be problematic have involved circumstances in which the process led to discrepancies between the two versions and that “there is no evidence of any improper translation during the operative jury deliberations” in the case before the court.
The question arose after Nicole Salinas’ 2011 Nissan Altima was “T-boned” in May 2014 by a drunk driver, causing her sister, Shanel Salinas, who was riding in the passenger seat, to suffer debilitating, life-long injuries.
Complaint Filed
On Jan. 14, 2015, Nicole Salinas and her sister, by and through a guardian ad litem, sued the driver, Fernando Ortiz, and Nissan North America Inc. The case proceeded to trial in 2023, and a potential panelist, identified as “Juror Zepeda” reported during voir dire that “sometimes when [she] get[s] nervous [her] English is not that good.”
Then-Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger (now retired) proceeded to ask her dozens of questions, to which she provided appropriate answers. Only Nissan challenged her for cause based on the “language issue,” and Czuleger overruled the objection.
During the first day of deliberations, the panel submitted a note to the court “requesting that the questions [in the verdict form] be translated in[to] Spanish.” The judge responded in writing, explaining that California law requires the proceedings to be conducted in English.
The following day, a juror called in sick and an alternate was substituted onto the panel. The jury was instructed to begin deliberations anew.
By a 10-2 vote, the jury found that Nissan was not “responsible for Shanel’s harm” and attributed 100% of the fault for the accident to Ortiz. The panel awarded damages of more than $20 million to Shanel Salinas and $100,000 to the driver.
New-Trial Motion
Following the verdict, Nicole and Shanel Salinas moved for a new trial, submitting a declaration from one of the dissenting panelists, who said that other juror had “translated into Spanish some of the things that happened during the trial for [Juror Zepeda]” and had also “attempted to translate the jury instructions and verdict form.” Nissan submitted a declaration from another panelist who confirmed that Juror Zepeda “wasn’t sure about one or two technical terms” but that she participated in the deliberative process in English.
In September 2023, Czuleger ruled against the plaintiff and struck the declarations, finding that the statements were “incompetent to attack the verdict in this case” and “are nothing more than the musings of disgruntled jurors, wild speculation as to the meaning of conversations, and/or rank hearsay.”
He declared that the translation of a few terms is not misconduct, reasoning that the case “involves some difficult engineering and medical testimony” and that “jurors are expected to assist each other.”
Hoffstadt wrote:
“The trial court did not err in denying plaintiffs’ new trial motion on the ground that Juror Zepeda’s difficulty with the English language rendered her incapable of serving on the jury. As a threshold matter, the court did not abuse its discretion in discounting [the dissenting juror’s] declaration; apart from the possible inadmissibility of portions of that declaration under Evidence Code section 1150, the trial court found the declaration not to be credible (based on it coming from a disgruntled juror and its ‘suspect’ verbiage). We cannot second guess that credibility finding on appeal.”
He continued:
“At most, there is evidence that Juror Zepeda needed help understanding ‘one or two technical terms’ on the verdict form. That is insufficient to render her incompetent to serve as a juror.”
Addressing the extrinsic evidence claim, he wrote:
“[T]he trial court did not err in concluding that there was no misconduct. As a matter of proof, there is no evidence that any juror engaged in any improper translating during the deliberations that resulted in the verdict….Alternatively, the acts of a handful of jurors explaining the meaning of terms on the English language verdict form to Juror Zepeda did not necessarily constitute misconduct through the introduction of extrinsic evidence.”
Highlighting that the vote “was 10-2 for Nissan, with Juror Zepeda voting in the majority,” he added:
“Juror Zepeda’s inability to understand the verdict form at most affected Juror Zepeda….[R]emoving her from the jury leaves a vote of 9-2 for Nissan. This falls far short of the votes plaintiffs would need to change the outcome.”
The case is Salinas v. Ortiz, B333235.
Acting for the plaintiffs were Arash Homampour, Corey C. Arzoumanian, Nareen M. Touloumdjian of the Sherman Oaks-based Homampour Law Firm, Jeffrey I. Ehrlich of the Ehrlich Law Firm, based in Claremont, and Reza Torkzadeh of the Torkzadeh Law Firm, located in Irvine.
Representing Nissan were Paul R. Lee, Gregory P. Gilmer, and Brandon L. Boxler of Klein Thomas Lee & Fresard, with offices in Irvine.
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