Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/260/447/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 11:58:20+00:00

Document:
and, as extended to other parts of the District under an act authorizing the District Commissioners to establish building regulations, it has the force of a custom binding wherever a party wall is reflected by one lot owner without objection by the adjoining owner. P. 260 U. S. 449.
2. And, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it must be presumed that the erection of such a wall was done without such objection. P. 260 U. S. 451.
3. A lot owner who used a party wall waived his right to object, in defense of an action for the value of the use, that the building regulations, with which he complied deprived him of his property without due process of law. P. 260 U. S. 452.
51 App.D.C. 4, 273 F. 366, affirmed.
Error to a judgment of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia affirming a judgment for Gish in an action to recover the value of the use of a party wall by Walker.
the value of the use at $85. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment, and the case comes here by writ of error on the issue of the constitutional validity of the building regulations of the District of Columbia, which by the Act of June 14, 1878, 20 Stat. 131, ch.194, are given the effect of congressional legislation. It is urged that they deprive defendant of his property without due process of law in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The question was seasonably raised by a request for a charge on the trial and by proper assignment of error in the proceedings for review. Judicial Code, § 250; Smoot v. Heyl, 227 U. S. 518, 227 U. S. 522.
annexed to every house lot in the original Washington. Miller v. Elliot, 5 Cr.C.C. 543, 17 Fed.Cas. 315, No. 9,568. It has been decided to be the only source of the right of a lot owner in Washington to put his party wall on his neighbor's land. Fowler v. Saks, 7 Mackey, 570, 579.
contribute to the cost of the wall arose in the outlying district as against the adjoining owners as in the Federal City if they used the party wall, and that the relations between the parties were regulated by the district building regulations.
We think the reasoning of the court in Fowler v. Koehler sustains its conclusion, and that the conclusion helps to the solution of an unfortunately difficult matter of much importance. The status of party wall in the case at bar is thus established. There is no evidence of the circumstances under which the party wall was erected, and we must presume that it was done by the predecessor in title of the plaintiff below with the consent of a grantor of the defendant below.
Plaintiff in error says that even if this be true, the effect of the district regulations is equivalent to a statute, and deprives him of his property without due process of law. The effect of §§ 74 and 56 of those regulations is, shortly stated, this: one of the two adjoining owners may build a two-story house and a party wall 9 inches thick, occupying 4 1/2 inches of his neighbor's land. If, thereafter, his neighbor wishes to build a house of three stories, that neighbor is required to have his wall 13 inches thick. He can take down the existing party wall, but he can occupy only 4 1/2 inches of the other's lot, and must pay all the expenses of the change, including the damage done to the owner of the two-story house, so that his party wall will be 8 1/2 inches on his own land, while he uses but 4 1/2 inches of his neighbor's. Or he can build a 9-inch wall against the two-story wall, and widen his wall to 13 inches when it reaches the third story, resting on 4 1/2 inches of the original party wall on his own land. He thus is compelled to occupy with his wall 13 inches of his own lot, and let his neighbor have 4 1/2 inches of his land without corresponding advantage.
institution of party walls is mutual benefit (Smoot v. Heyl, 227 U. S. 518, 227 U. S. 523), which implies equality of easement of support and of occupation of land between the neighbors, and that to give to the builder of the first wall such great advantage over his neighbors as these regulations give him deprives his neighbor of property without due process of law.
The questions thus raised might justify discussion if the plaintiff in error were in a position to urge them, and had not used the original party wall of which he complains. His contention below was that he had not used the wall of his neighbor, that he had built a new wall at the side of the original party wall as high as the original wall and then had widened it to 13 inches so as to extend over the original wall without resting on it. The jury found against him on this issue. If he did use the original wall, then he must pay for the value of the use. Fowler v. Saks, 7 Mackey, 570, 581; Fowler v. Koehler, 43 App.D.C. 349, 360. In using it, he waived the right to object to the regulations with which he complied without objection, until he was called upon to pay his share of that which he had taken and used.

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