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# SUPREME COURT From Burke County L. R. Baird, as Receiver of Citizens' State Bank of Flaxton, North Dakota, a corporation, Plaintiff and Respondent, vs. Burke County, a quasi-municipal corporation, et al, Defendants and Appellants. (Syllabus by the Court) 1. When the courts are called upon to determine and give effect to the legislative intention, it is proper to take notice of such contemporaneous history as led up to and probably induced the passage of the law, Sec. 7938, Subd. 60, C. L. 1913; to this end the court should place itself, as nearly as possible, in the situation of the legislature, in order to ascertain the necessity and probable object of the statute. 2. The construction of statutes is a judicial function; the action of the legislature of 1923, purporting to construe the statutes of 1917 and 1919 as legislative blunders, and therein attempting to give a meaning to words used by prior legislatures contrary to their ordinary and natural import, is not binding upon the courts. 3. The state constitution is a limitation, not a grant, of power; the legislature has full power of legislation, except as limited by that instrument and the Federal Constitution. Although the people have reserved legislative power, through the initiative and the referendum, the power of the legislature to act upon all proper subjects of legislation is wholly unchanged. Through the initiative, the people have provided against nonaction by the duly constituted representatives in the legislative branch; and through the referendum, an appeal may be taken di-
