Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/213

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In re DANCE.
187

judgment. In the interim the official term of said Kuhn had expired and his docket had passed to the possession of his successor, one William G. Dance. The writ was directed to Justice Dance, requiring him to send up a transcript of the records and proceedings in the case and of all the pleadings and papers on file in his office relating thereto. The return of this officer to the writ showed a complete and legal judgment. Every entry which the law required should be made had been made. We do not understand that this is questioned. At the end of the formal judgment and preceding the signature of the justice, were the words, “Dated at Kindred, Cass county, N. D., January 3rd, 1890.” Kindred is a village in Norman township. When this return was in, petitioner applied for and obtained a supplemental writ, directed to Ex-Justice Kuhn, requiring him to return a full “statement” of all his proceedings in said action. This supplemental writ was issued upon an affidavit tending to show that the statements in the record were in fact false. When the response of Mr. Kuhn to the supplemental writ was received, it stated that when the verdict of the jury was returned he adjourned court, without fixing time or place of further meeting, and took his docket and went to the city of Wahpeton, in Richland county, where on January 5, 1890, the judgment was entered and signed. If the statements contained in the return of Ex-Justice Kuhn be true, he lost jurisdiction of the case when he adjourned as stated, and all his subsequent acts were without authority. Our statute—§ 6104, Comp. Laws—requires the justice, when a trial is by jury, to enter judgment at once in accordance with the verdict; and by § 6109 this judgment must include the costs allowed by law to the prevailing party. These provisions are mandatory. Hull v. Mallory, 56 Wis. 355, 14 N. W. Rep. 374; McNamara v. Spees, 25 Wis. 539; Brady v. Taber, 29 Mich. 199. Nor could Justice Kuhn legally enter judgment or tax costs or exercise any other judicial function outside the township and county for which he was elected. Section 6041, Comp. Laws, requires justices of the peace to keep their offices and hold their courts at some place within such county and township; and for a construction of similar provisions, see State v. Marvin, 26 Minn.