Plaintiff, the owner of a five-story residential building directly adjacent to the Defendant’s newly constructed fourteen-story building, claimed that the easterly exterior wall of the Defendant’s building cantilevered over the Plaintiff’s building and prevented Plaintiff from extending an existing party wall to add additional floors to the Plaintiff’s building.

 The Plaintiff asserted causes of action for, inter alia, conversion/encroachment, trespass and negligence, and framed the issue as “whether the owner of real property, which once contained a building that used a party wall supporting two adjoining buildings, but now contains a newly-constructed building that is supported by a new independent wall, may cantilever its new building over that portion of the former party wall which does not cross the parties’ property line”. The Court granted the Defendant’s motion for partial summary judgment dismissing the above referenced causes of action. According to the Court, “[w]here one adjoining owner demolishes its building…this puts an end to the necessity of support [by the party wall] on its side of the building…At that point, the owner of the property no longer using the wall for support still has ‘ownership rights in that part of the wall lying on its property’…And that owner may use its side of the wall for its own commercial use, so long as none of its structures compromised the integrity of the wall or cross the property line”. [Citations omitted]

 145 W. 21st Realty LLC v. First West 21st Street LLC, 2017 NY Slip Op 31377, decided June 26, 2017, is posted at http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/pdfs/2017/2017_31377.pdf.