Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/533

ory only would, in our opinion, impair its efficiency. Hayne, New Trial & App. § 238. Express findings are required upon every material issue raised by any pleading, and, if any are left unfound it is ground for reversal. Id. § 239; People v. Forbes, 51 Cal. 628; Billings v. Everett, 52 Cal. 661; Speegle v. Leese, 51 Cal. 415; Johnson v. Squires, 53 Cal. 37; Bank of Woodland v. Treadwell, 55 Cal. 380; Harlan v. Ely, id. 344. In the case we are considering the district court did not draw up express findings on the ultimate questions of fact raised by the complaint and answer; but in lieu of such express findings the court reverts to the stipulation of counsel as to the facts and evidence submitted at the trial, and set out herein at length. The court says: “The court now here adopts said facts so stipulated as its findings of fact in this case, and that there is due plaintiff on the warrants in suit $3,180.18.” What, then, is it that the learned trial court thus undertakes to substitute for express findings of the ultimate facts? This question is best answered by an examination of the stipulation of counsel to which the court refers. Such examination will disclose that the stipulation embraces an agreement of what shall be put in evidence at the trial; also that certain facts not proven are agreed to; and, finally, that certain other facts which are deducible from the evidence are agreed to as facts. But such facts as are agreed to are—like the testimony in the case—merely evidential of the ultimate facts which the court is required to find in response to the issues arising upon the pleadings. Among the facts expressly mentioned in the stipulation is the following: “The book called on its title page ‘School District No. 39, County of Barnes. District Clerk’s Record Book’—constitutes the school district records of the defendant. They are what they purport to be, and the minutes therein are what they purport to be—minutes of meetings of the school district—-except the minutes dated May 12, 1882, and the one immediately following without date. The latter two are minutes of the meetings of the school board of defendant.” This part of the stipulation refers directly to Exhibit C. It follows that, by adopting the stipulation of counsel made at the trial, with respect to the evidence and certain facts, as the findings of the court, the court