Support

1.

Sustenance; maintenance, q. V. Gr. sent D. a letter saying " Please let S. and family have whatever they may want for their support, and I will pay you." Held, that D. could not recover for services and medicines furnished by a physician; that "support " is generally used to mean articles for sustenance, and that G. did not intend the word^to mean necessaries.'' See Necessaries, 1; Means; Want. 2. The right in an owner to rely upon the support afforded his land by the ground adjoining, in its natural state. Spoken of as "lateral," when the support is thought of as contiguous or adjacent, rather than as subjacent. The right to support for land in its natural condition is ex jure katuroe, not dependent on grant and not acquirable by prescription. The right to support for artificial burdens is an easement acquirable only by grant, expi'ess or implied. The right may be implied from circumstances, as, where houses, needing the supportof each other, are built by the same owner^ and one is conveyed without stipulation to the contrary. But such implied right is confined to the status quo at the time of grant, and extends not to increase the burdens upon the soil.^ ' Subject to any express grant, reservation, covenant, or inconsistent right gained by prescription, it is welt established that when the surface of land belongs to one person and the subjacent earth and minerals toanother, the latter is burdened with a natural servitude to support the former, and also that the owner of land is entitled to the performance of a similar servitude of lateral support by adjacent land; but these easements only extend to the land in its natxu'al and ■ 2 Story, Eq. §§ 1476-77; 4 Bl. Com. 253. unincumbered state, and not with the additional ■weight of buildings upon it. To maintain an action for a nuisance affecting ^uch an easement, some appreciable damage must be shown. ^ Every land-owner has a right to have his land preserved unbroken. An ad.lacent owner excavating on his land is subject to the I'estriction that he must not remove the earth so near his neighbor's land that his soil "will crmnble under its own weight and fall. But this right to lateral support extends only to soil in its natural condition. It does not protect whatever is placed upon the soil increasing the downward and lateral pressure. If it did, it would be in the power of a lot-owner, by erecting heavy buildings, to greatly abridge the right of his neighbor to use his lot." See Easement; Utere, Sic, etc.

Supports.

Of a bridge: the abutments, piers, and trestles on which the string-pieces rest from beneath. The cross-pieces, imder the string-pieces, and to which they are bolted, are not supports.'