Webster v. Stevens
The Superior Court of New York City
This was an action to recover damages for the wrongful taking down, by the defendants, and their servants, of a party-wall, which was alleged to be the common support of a building occupied by the plaintiff, under a lease, and an adjoining building, owned by the defendants.
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This was an action to recover damages for the wrongful taking down, by the defendants, and their servants, of a party-wall, which was alleged to be the common support of a building occupied by the plaintiff, under a lease, and an adjoining building, owned by the defendants. The defendants, in their answer, claimed that they had a legal right to take down that part of the wall in question which was on their own lot; that it was this right only that they had exercised, and that, in its exercise, they had acted with all proper care and diligence, and after notice to the plaintiff of their…
1Opinion of the CourtBy the Court. Slosson, J.
It is undoubtedly true that where the owners of adjoining lots construct, by mutual consent, a wall, partly on the lot of each, for the common support of the buildings erected by them on their respective lots, and the same is used as a wall for common support for twenty years, such wall is strictly a party-wall, within the legal meaning of that term, and the owner of each house has an easement in the portion of the wall standing on his neighbor’s land for its support.
So also where the owner of two lots erects a building on each, with a common wall for the support of the two, standing partly…
2Cited by12 opinions
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- Morrison v. KingIllinois Supreme Court · 1871
- Glenn v. DavisCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1872
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