Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/44

 Further allegations of the complaint are set forth in the majority opinion. To the complaint a demurrer was interposed. It is a well-settled rule of pleading, that the demurrer admits all the allegations of the complaint, well pleaded. That is, that all such allegations of the complaint must be taken as true.

For the purposes of this appeal, the demurrer admitting the allegations of the complaint which sets forth the fraud and bribery of the trial judge, and the fraud of the attorney, the situation is practically the same as if a trial had been had upon those questions, and it had been found, as a fact, by a trial court, that the trial court before which the trial occurred had been guilty of fraud and bribery, as alleged in the complaint, and one of the attorneys guilty of fraud, as there alleged. With this situation confronting us, it is well to consider the question of jurisdiction. That " question, as presented here, is an abstruse one. It is one, as it presents itself here, that is quite difficult of comprehension and solution.

“The supreme power in each civilized state enacts general laws declaring and fixing the rights of persons under its dominion. It then establishes judicial tribunals for the purpose of declaring and fixing such rights in particular cases. The power given by law to the tribunal to declare and fix such rights is called its jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is simply power.” VanFleet, Collateral Attack, § 58.

Jurisdiction is the power to hear, determine, and give judgment, not corruptly, but honestly. It was not intended by the Constitution, that the powers delegated to the courts could be used corruptly, and in matters which come before them they have no power to act corruptly. They may decide a case rightly or wrongly, and still their proceedings and the judgment entered may be valid, but this is far from admitting that a court may act in a given matter, in a corrupt manner and from a corrupt motive, and still render a valid judgment. This cannot be. It is against public policy.

“Every litigant, including the state in criminal cases, is entitled to nothing less than the cold neutrality of an impartial judge.” 15 R. C. L. 539.

It should be admitted, it would seem, that a trial court which is interested in the case would be wholly disqualified to hear, try, and determine and render judgment in the same. Of course, if the allegations of the complaint are true, and here they must be assumed to be true, the trial court in this case was getting $1,500 for deciding the case in defendant's favor; that, of course, constituted an interest in the litigation.