Re Salhus

The sole question involved in this case is whether a justice of the peace has authority to order (in a judgment of conviction) that a defendant be imprisoned on failure to pay a fine in a case where an offense is punishable by both fine and imprisonment and the justice of the peace has sentenced the offender to both fine and imprisonment.

The majority opinion sets forth some of the provisions of the Justice's Code of the Territory of Dakota for 1877 and makes reference to the compilation, revision and codification authorized by the legislative assembly of North Dakota in 1893 resulting in the…