Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/481

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WILSON v. CITY OF FARGO
457

as the erroneous principles applied by the controlling minority. The original proposed opinion is as follows:

“This is an appeal from an order entered in the District Court of Cass County overruling a demurrer to a complaint. The action is brought by the plaintiff as a tax payer, on behalf of himself and all persons similarly situated, to enjoin a proposed special election in the City of Fargo. The election was called pursuant to chap. 122, Session Laws of 1921. This chapter makes certain amendments to the statutes relating to the exemption of property from taxation and provides for the limitation of tax levies in the manner to be hereinafter stated. Political subdivisions are authorized to exceed these limitations by twenty-five percent, however, if the proposition is favored by a majority vote of the electors. It was to secure this expression of the voters that the special election sought to be enjoined herein was called. The plaintiff and respondent bases his right to restrain the holding of the election on the unconstitutionality of the statute. The objections urged are: First, during the passage of the bill, the purpose was changed in violation of § 58 of the constitution which declares that no bill shall be so altered and amended on its passage through either house as to change its original purpose; second, it was passed in violation of $ 63, which provides that every bill must be read through several times; third, the bill embraces more than one subject in violation of § 61, and fourth, that the bill amended and revised an existing law without incorporating ‘the entire section amended as required by § 64 of the constitution.

“The act in question as originally introduced was house bill Number 25, entitled “A Bill For an Act to Amend and Re-enact § 2078, the Comp. Laws of North Dakota for the Year 1913 and chap. 223 of Session Laws of North Dakota for the Year 1919, Relating to the Exemption of Property from Taxation.” The House Journal shows the passage of this bill, with slight amendments not at present material, but without sufficient votes to enact the emergency clause. With the emergency clause stricken, the bill was messaged to the Senate. While pending there, it was amended by striking out everything after the words, “A Bill,” and inserting, substantially, the contents which now appear as chap. 122 of the Session Laws of 1921. The title of the inserted measure is as follows:—‘“A Bill for an Act to Amend and Reenact Subsection 11 and Subsection 15 of chap. 223, Session Laws of North Dakota for the Year 1919, Relating to Taxation and More Specifically to the Exemption of Property from Taxation ; and Providing for a Limitation of Tax Levies Upon all Tax-