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The right to the support of land, or of a house by neighbouring land, appears to stand upon the same footing the same footing as the right to the like support by adjoining land. In Brown v. Robins (4 H. & N. 186; 28 L. J. Ex., 250), land belonging to a third person intervened between the land of the plaintiff and that of the defendant. A house more than twenty years old, standing on the plaintiff's land, was injured by the subsidence of the surface, caused by the defendant working mines under his own land. The defendant was aware that, by working the mines under his land, and by withdrawing the pillars and ribs, the safety of the plaintiff's land would be endangered. The jury found that the subsidence was not caused by the weight of the plaintiff's house; and, under these circumstances, the court held that the plaintiff was entitled to the support of the neighbouring land. Pollock C. B. moreover said "As to the right of support for the house quá house, if necessary to decide it, which it is not, I should be disposed to hold that the plaintiff was entitled to the support of the surrounding ground."

The right to the vertical support of the foundations of buildings by the underlying strata, would not, upon principle, seem to be a natural right. Watson B., however, in Rogers v. Taylor (2 H. and N., 828; 27 L. J. Ex., 173), appears to have been inclined to think that there is some distinction in this respect between the right to vertical and the right to lateral support; and that an owner of the surface of land is entitled to its support for buildings put upon it, even in the absence of a grant or a right by prescription for that purpose. Of the cases quoted by the learned judge in support of this view, Humphries v. Brogden was one; but in that case the question of support as to buildings was not alluded to, except only for the purpose of excluding it from consideration. Baron Parke's opinion in Harris v. Ryding, is apparently opposed to that of Baron Watson. In Jeffries v. Williams (5 Exch., 792) the question was not raised; and in Smart v. Morton (a case which, according to the report of Rogers v. Taylor in the Law Journal, was especially adverted to by Watson B.) the questions in dispute were regulated by deed between the parties. Again, in the case of Hilton v. Whitehead (12 Q. B., 734), the declaration alleged that the plaintiff "of right was entitled to, and of right ought to, have had his said dwellinghouse, &c., supported by the land between the same, and the mines of the defendant;" and the court was of opinion that the declaration was bad, for not stating the grounds on which the plaintiff was entitled to have his house so supported. We apprehend, therefore, that the greater weight of authority

The report of this case in the Law Jou. nal is inaccurate.

favours the view that the right to the vertical support of the foundations of buildings by the underlying minerals, is not a natural right, but one that may be acquired as an easement, in the like manner as the right to support of a building by adjoining soil may be acquired.

We must here call the reader's attention to the fact, that the report in the Law Journal of the judgment of Watson B., in Rogers v. Taylor, is totally different from that given in the authorized report of the case. We attribute no blame to the learned gentleman who reported the case for the former, for probably the judgment was delivered in the very words he has given; and, indeed, it is worthy of notice, that in nearly all the cases in which the courts take time to consider of their judgments, the reports of them in the Law Journal and in the authorized report are almost identical; but in cases in which judgments are delivered off-hand, there are frequent and important discrepancies, which may perhaps be accounted for on the supposition that the judgments themselves are altered upon reconsideration.

In dealing with these questions of the right to adjacent or subjacent support of a house, it must be borne in mind that there are cases in which, though the house be modern, damages may be recovered for an injury done to it by digging too near the common boundary. If the owner establishes his right to support for his soil, and the jury should be of opinion that the land would have fallen in in consequence of the digging, even had no additional weight been imposed by building, the value of the house falling with the land may be recovered as damage resulting from the principal injury, (Gale, 225; Brown v. Robins, ubi sup.)

There is no direct authority that the right to the support of a building, by an adjoining building, may be claimed simply by twenty years' enjoyment. In Peyton v. The Mayor of London (9 B. & C., 725), the question arose, but the declaration did not allege as a fact, that the plaintiffs were entitled1 to have their house supported by the defendant's house; nor did it, in the opinion of the court, contain any allegation from which a title to such support could be inferred as a matter of law, and the plaintiffs' case consequently failed.

But in Brown v. Windsor (1 Cr. and J., 20), it was proved that permission had been obtained in 1803, from the then owner of the defendant's house, to build against the wall of such house,

In Jeffries v. Williams (5 Exch., 792), and Bibby v. Carter (4 H. and N., 153, S. C., 28 L. J. Exch., 182), it was held that the declaration, although it contained no averment of the right to support of a house by adjoining soil, yet disclosed a sufficient cause of action, because it did not appear in the declaration that the defendant was the owner of the adjoining soil, or entitled to avail himself of the rights of such owner.

and that the easement had been acquiesced in for twenty-seven years. Here the court held that the defendant could not alter his wall, so as consequentially to injure the plaintiff's house, without being liable for such injury. And in Richards v. Rose (9 Exch., 218), the court held, that where a number of houses are built at the same time by the same owner, the right of mutual support exists, either by a presumed grant or a presumed reservation; so that the owner who sells one of the houses, as against himself, grants such right, and on his part also reserves the right.

We now come to the case of Solomon v. the Vintners' Company. In this case, the plaintiff's house was not next adjoining to the defendants' house, but a house belonging to another person intervened between the two. The plaintiff's house leaned upon the intervening house, and the intervening house leaned upon the defendants' house. The defendants, by causing their house to be pulled down, occasioned the fall of the intervening house, which brought down the plaintiff's house with it. All the houses were ancient houses, and more than twenty years old. There was no evidence that the three houses ever were held under one title, or belonged to the same owner, or even that there was a community of roof between them, to constitute what is termed in civil law contignatio.

The Lord Chief Baron delivered the judgment of himself and Martin and Channell, B.B. After observing that, if the house removed had been the next adjoining the plaintiff's, their lordships would have felt much embarrassed by some cases and dicta; and after referring to the cases of Stansell v. Jollard, Hide v. Thornborough, and Humphries v. Brogden, his lordship said—“It is extremely difficult to see how the circumstance of the houses having stood for twenty years makes any difference, or creates a right where houses are supposed to have been built by different adjoining landowners, each with its own separate and independent walls, but upwards of twenty years ago one of them got out of the perpendicular, and leaned upon, and was supported in part by, the others, so that if the latter were removed the other would fall. It cannot be a right by prescription, which supposes a state of things existing before the time of legal memory. Nor does it seem to us to be a right under the Prescription Act, 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 71, which has been hitherto confined to rights in their nature of a perpetual and permanent character, and the ownership of which is in fee-simple. It seems to us that, in the absence of all evidence as to origin or grant, the only way in which such a right can be supported, is that suggested by Lord Campbell in Humphries v. Brogden, namely, an absolute rule of law similar to that which is stated to have existed in the civil law. But there is no authority for any such rule to be found; at least none was stated

to us.

Lord Campbell compares it to a right to light; but that right is created by the express enactment of the third section of the statute before referred to. And it seems contrary to justice and reason, that a man, by building a weak house adjoining to the house of his neighbour, can, if the weak house gets out of the perpendicular, and leans upon the adjoining house, thereby compel his neighbour either to pull down his own house within twenty years, or to bring some action at law, the precise nature of which is not very clear; otherwise, it is said, an adverse right would be acquired against him. But these questions we refer to because they were matters of argument at the bar. It is not necessary to decide them in the present case. The defendants' houses were not next adjoining the plaintiff's. *** The question therefore really comes to this: Is there any authority in the law for the existence of such a right as that claimed by the plaintiff? We find none where the houses do not adjoin; and, although we possibly might have acted upon the cases before referred to if the circumstances had been the same, we are not disposed to extend the principle farther than we feel ourselves compelled by authority. If there be such a rule of law as that suggested by Lord Campbell in Humphries v. Brogden, the plaintiff's contention may be right. But, as already observed, we have not been referred to, and are not aware of, any authority to that effect."

Bramwell B. agreed in the result of the judgment, and did not dissent from any reason given in support of it; but the reasons seemed to his lordship to involve questions of very great difficulty and importance, and he would rather not pronounce an opinion. on them without great consideration. There was another ground upon which the defendants were entitled to the judgment of the court where a house leans, as in this case, the owner of it may make two claims on his neighbour in respect of it—one, a general right to occupy a portion of the neighbour's ground as it were, and to hang over and occupy a portion of air over it; the other, a right to support from the walls of the neighbour's house. The former claim was here out of the question, because the plaintiff's house did not impend over the defendants' land. As to the other claim, supposing it did exist as a matter of absolute right, or of prescription, or under the Prescription Act, or as founded on some supposed lost grant-in any of these cases it could only exist if the benefit which was claimed was one that was enjoyed as of right. Now, a thing cannot be enjoyed as of right unless it be openly enjoyed. An enjoyment must neither be vi, precario, Dor clam. In the present case, his lordship thought no one could tell that the house was being supported; and therefore, supposing that the plaintiff for more than twenty years had an

enjoyment which he contended ought now to continue, it was an enjoyment clam, not openly, and consequently not of right.

Martin B. added, that if he had been one of the jury, he should have found a verdict for the defendants on the ground stated by Bramwell B.; but, if that was the correct view of the case, it was a question for the jury, and not one of law.

On the judgment delivered by the Lord Chief Baron, we have but one remark to make. It is this:--Lord Campbell, in Humphries v. Brogden, does not appear to have intimated that the rule suggested by him was applicable to the case of support of building by building. The ruling of Lord Ellenborough in Stansell v. Jollard, and of Parke. B. in Hide v. Thornborough, applies only to cases of support of buildings by the adjoining soil; and we apprehend that it was not the intention of Lord Campbell to extend the rule to the case of support of building by building.

[To be continued.]

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