Stevenson v. Mellor

Citations

• 252 Pa. 219
• 97 A. 393
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 597

Syllabus

<p>Party walls — Contracts—Construction—Affidavit of defense— Insufficient averments — Act of June 7, 1895, P. L. 185.</p> <p>1. The Act of June 7, 1895, P. L. 135, Section 9, governing the subject of party walls in cities of the second class, does not prevent a party sued to recover a proportion of the cost of a party wall from pleading payment or a release.</p> <p>2. Where in an action by a property owner to recover from an adjoining owner, an agreed contribution toward the cost of a party wall, erected by plaintiff, it appeared that under the contract between the parties plaintiff was to pay the cost of shoring, an affidavit of defense which alleged that after paying the cost off-shoring, plaintiff had broken his contract by insisting upon the inclusion of this expense as part of the cost of the wall in the estimate and certificate issued by the superintendent of the bureau of building inspection, was insufficient to prevent judgment, as the defendant had been released from paying any part of the shoring by the contract and could not be prejudiced by the superintendent’s certificate.</p>