The plaintiff concedes that the defendant’s liability would have been questionable if he had not entered upon the plaintiff's land and built thereupon
The plaintiff urges, moreover, that the defendant has assumed the obligation of paying for the party-wall because he took the land “ subject to the agreement ” between the plaintiff and Mrs. McMillan; and the case of Dingeldein v. The Third Avenue R. R. Co. (37 N. Y. 575) is cited as an authority in support of that position. That case seems to me to be an authority in favor of the opposite conclusion. The phrase u subject to the agreement ” is a mere recognition of the right of the plaintiff to have and maintain the party-wall upon the ¡and which the defendant was purchasing. The right to the ¿)arty-w.all was an easement possessed by the plaintiff in that land, if Mrs. McMillan’s agreement was sufficient to create it. The wall worked a diminution of the control of the defendant over his land, and, like any ordinary incumbrance, was mentioned in the deed. In the Dingeldein case, there was no incumbrance, and the words “ subject to the payment” (not subject to the agreement, as in the present action) would have been without meaning or effect, if they had not been construed to import an agreement to pay the claim they referred to.
The case of Hoffman v. Barry (2 Hun, 52) disposes of the objection as to the costs.
Charles P. Daly, Ch. J., concurred.
Order affirmed, with costs and disbursements.
Affirmed by the Court of Appeals in 76 N. Y. 141.
