German National Bank v. Mellor

Citations

• 238 Pa. 415
• 86 A. 467
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 985

Syllabus

<p>Party walls — Use—Contribution—Act of April 8,1872, P. L. 986.</p> <p>1. The Act of April 8, 1872, P. L. 986, providing that the owner of an adjoining lot cannot use a party wall by building into or against it until he shall have paid a proportionate part of the cost of the wall to the first builder, his heirs or assigns, provides for two contingencies: first, the erection of a new wall, where there was none, which cannot be used at all until payment, and, second, the erection of a new wall to replace an old one, of which no new use can be made without payment. If, however, the old wall was ¡sufficient for the old use, and the new wall is not subjected to any new use by the adjoining owner, but only to the continuance of the old use, he cannot be called upon for contribution. The statute does not make him liable until he begins to make a new use of the wall. Reasonable test of what is a new use is whether it is a use that could not have been made of the old wall.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover contribution for the cost of a party wall, defendant will not be required to contribute where it appears that plaintiff in the erection of a large building removed a party wall which was on the line between his property and defendant’s property and erected a new wall to answer the requirements of his building, that the joists of the existing building on the defendant’s lot were inserted into the new party wall the same as they had been in the old wall and that later defendants remodeled their building and made use of the party wall, it being shown by the testimony that in the remodeling of their building, the defendants made no new use of the party wall such as contemplated by the Act of April 8, 1872, P. L. 986.</p>