Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/159

This page needs to be proofread.
STATE v. POINDEXTER
135

ment which had been occupied by Harper. Wholly different is the testimony regarding Mr. Underwood. For 25 successive years he has been elected and re-elected as the chief magistrate of Enderlin. He has not been roving about from place to place, from post to pillar, and leaving his character behind him. For aught that appears to the contrary, the word and the conscience of Magistrate Underwood is just as good as any judge of this state, and there is no reason that he should be mulcted in damages to the amount of one cent. There is no testimony that he had anything to do with the arrest. True, the Masons testify that when brought before the magistrate he ordered them taken to jail while he made out the complaint and the warrant for their arrest. This the magistrate does emphatically deny, and it is of no special consequence. His word is fully as good as that of the roving Masons. No honesty is shown by their trying to keep the tent, their keeping the excess rent paid to July 13th, or their breaking into the house, and, as a rule, both truth and honesty go together. A person who is not honest, neither is he truth- ful. In dealing with Harper, if the Masons had shown a spirit of Christian charity and fairness, they might still be residing in Enderlin. The judgment should be reversed, and the action dismissed.

Grace, J. (specially concurring). I concur in the opinion of Mr. Justice Robinson, on the ground that the court erred in excluding evidence of ownership of the tent.




STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA, on the relation of C. C. Wattam, et al, Appellants, v. D. C. POINDEXTER, State Auditor, Respondent.

(188 N. W. 852.)

Statutes—legislative enactment concerning employees of each house and its expenses held paramount to independent action of each house.

1. A legislative enactment, expressing the legislative power of the Legislative Assembly, pursuant to express constitutional provision, con-