The North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated a sanctions order against Toyota in a fatal crash case after concluding the trial court erred in requiring the company to create English translations of documents already provided in Japanese.

In a Tuesday opinion, the court vacated the Robeson County Superior Court's sanction order, concluding it wasn't the defendants' responsibility to provide English translations for the documents. The panel, composed of Chief Judge Chris Dillon and Judges Thomas Murry and Carolyn Thompson, noted that while Rule 26 of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure allows parties to seek documents in the possession of opposing parties, it doesn't require the opposing parties "to pay for any said documents to be translated into the English language."