Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/827

 failure to move or bring the case to trial within 5 years, the judgment should be reversed, and the action dismissed.

THE STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA, EX REL. FARMERS STATE BANK OF PAGE, a domestic corporation and FARMERS STATE BANK OF PAGE, a domestic corporation individually, Petitioner v. GEORGE E. WALLACE, as Tax Commissioner of the State of North Dakota, F. C. EDDY as Treasurer of Cass County, North Dakota and FRED A. KRAEMER, as Sheriff of Cass County, North Dakota, Respondents.

(187 N. W. 728)

Statutes — where words are plain and unambiguous, the statute is not subject to construction.

1. Where plain and unambiguous words are used in a statute the statute is not rendered subject to construction, especially where the words have long been employed in similar legislation in their ordinary sense and where the attempt to find a different meaning requires a resort to speculation.

Statutes — where the same words used in concurrent legislation resorted to are not inconsistent with their ordinary meaning, use in a qualified sense cannot be ascribed thereto.

2. Where concurrent legislation is resorted to in an effort to show that ordinary words were used in a qualified sense, the limited meaning will not be ascribed to the legislature where the concurrent legislation is not inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the words in question.

Constitutional law — statutes should be construed to make them constitutional if possible.

3. Statutes should be construed, if possible, so as to be constitutional in their operation and if, where ordinary words are given their ordinary meaning, the statute may operate constitutionally whereas, if given a restricted meaning, it would operate unconstitutionally as to a portion of the subject matter affected, it must be held that the legislature intended the ordinary meaning to attach,

Constitutional law — courts not concerned with legislative policy.

4. Courts are not concerned with the policy reflected in legislation or with the motives of the legislature.