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NORTH DAKOTA EX REL. STOESER v. BRASS.
485

142; Thorpe v. Railroad Co., 27 Vt. 1; Lincoln v. Smith, 27 Vt. 355; State v. Gilmore, 10 8. E. Rep. 283; State v. Goodwill, 10 S. E. Rep. 285; State v. Fire Creek Co., 108. E. Rep. 288; Osborn v. Hart, 47 Wis. 219; Durkee v. City of Janesville, 28 Wis. 464; Culbertson v. Coleman, 47 Wis. 193.

James F. O’Brien, for respondent:

Appellant having based his refusal to comply with the writ upon the unconstitutionality of the law in question, it becomes his duty to prove it beyond all doubt. Railroad Co. v. Riblet, 66 Pa. St. 164; Territory v. Van Gaskin, 6 Pac. Rep. 30; Lunt’s Case, 6 Me. 413. Every presumption is in favor of the constitationality of legislative acts. People v. Gilson, 109 N. Y. 389; St. Louis County v. Griswold, 58 Mo. 192; State v. Able, 65 Mo. 357. Appellant has no absolute right to the property in question. He holds the same subject to the paramount right of the people to control the same for the public good. Beer Co. v. Massachusetts, 97 U. S. 25; State v. Addington, 12 Mo. App. 214; Bertholf v. O’Reilly, 74 N. Y. 509. See also the leading cases of Munn, Budd and Nash.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Wallin, J. The statute under which this proceeding was instituted constitutes chapter 126 of the Session Laws of North Dakota for the year 1891. It is entitled “An act to regulate grain warehouses, and the weighing and handling of grain, and defining the duties of the railroad commissioners in relation thereto.” The act contains fourteen sections, but we deem it unnecessary for the purposes of this case to do more than to refer to the statute, and then quote §§ 4 and 11 in full. Section 4 is as fullows: “All buildings, warehouses, or elevators in this state, erected or operated, or which may be hereafter erected and operated, by any person or persons, association, co-partnership, corporation, or trust, for the purpose of buying, selling, storing, shipping, or handling grain for profit, are hereby declared public warehouses; and the person or persons, association, co-partnership, or trust owning or operating said building or buildings, elevator or elevators, warehouse or warehouses, which are now or