Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/162

 as allowed, together with individual itemized vouchers for such persons and expenses incurred; that then the House by resolution in all things accepted and approved the report and discharged the committee; that, pursuant thereto, the Speaker and chief clerk of the House examined and certified the statement of the employees and expenses of such committee, and that such statement, together with itemized vouchers of individual and particular items, was filed on March 5, 1921, in the office of the State Auditor; that on March 22, 1921, demand was made upon the “State Auditor to issue warrants to relators for the respective amounts due for such employment, and that the State Auditor, in violation of his duties, has refused so to do; that there is available and unexpended in the legislative appropriation for per diem of officers and employees of the Legislative Assembly approximately $4,692.40, and for printing, miscellaneous expenses, and supplies of such Legislative Assembly approximately $22,257.97. The expense account attached to the petition shows a total of $14,894.38: for supplies, $107.70; for stenographers, comprising the bills of relators herein, $2,197.50; for witnesses, $637.90; for other employees, including investigator, marshals, and accountants, $3,951.28; for counsel, comprising the bills of Attorneys Murphy and Sullivan, $8,000. This expense account is also verified as correct and true by the chairman and secretary of this committee.

The Senate did not concur in the resolution appointing the audit committee nor in the resolution adopting the report and approving the expenses incurred.

The petitioners, the appellants herein, contend that under the Constitution (§ 48) each house possesses in addition to the specific powers mentioned in the Constitution, all other powers necessary and usual in the Legislative Assembly of a free state; that each house accordingly possesses inherently full and ample power to function as a branch of the Legislative Assembly, to appoint committees, to gather information, and to carry on investigations and other work incident to the work of the legislative body; that a committee of such legislative branch, properly appointed, may conduct the proceedings necessary; that it may incur expenses properly a charge against the funds of the state as though they had been contracted by the House, subject only to the constitutional limitation that there must exist an appropriation therefor; that neither prior