support

In the law of easements. The right to rest the beams or framework of a building into a wall of an adjoining building. Also rights of lateral and subjacent support which pertain to owners of adjoining lands. See "Party Walls;" "Lateral Support." In the law of decedents' estates the term "support" is sometimes used as a synonym for the allowance of articles or money set apart for the survivor and children.

The right of support is an easement which one man, either by contract or prescription, enjoys, to rest the joists or timbers of bis house upon the wall of an adjoining building owned by another person. 3 Kent 435. See Washb. Easem. A right to the support of one’s land so as to prevent its falling into an excavation made by the owner of adjacent lands. This support is of two kinds, lateral and subjacent. Lateral support is the right of land to be supported by the land which lies next' to it. Subjacent support is the right of land to be supported by the land which lies under it. See Lateral Support; Mines and Mining. Support is also generally used to mean articles for the sustenance of the family, as food, etc. Grant v. Dabney, 19 Kan. 389, 27 Am. Rep. 125. See Family.

Sustenance. Support, right of: the right of a land-owner to have his soil supported in its natural state by soil adjacent; the right of the builder and owner of a house to rest his timbers on the

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.'

The right of support is the right of a land-owner to rely upon the support naturally afforded to his land by the soil adjoining. The general rule is, that every landowner is entitled to have his land, in its natural state, supported by the adjoining land of his neighbor; hence, an action will lie against the latter, if, by digging on his own land, he removes that support. This right to lateral support from adjoining soil is not held to be an easement, but is a right of property, pa.'^sing with the soil. It is often said to be founded on the principle sic utere luo ut alienum non Icedas (q. v ), — ■ that is to say, the ownership of land is subject to this limitation, that one must not dig it away to the boundary line in such manner as will cause the adjoining soil to fall in. But if a person builds to the utmost extremity of his own land, and thereby increases the lateral pressure on the soil of his neighbor, and then the latter digs his own ground, so that the first person's land and buildings fall, an action will not lie for the injury occasioned to the buildings, unless he has, by grant or prescription, acquired a right to the support of the house by the soil of his neighbor. The common-law right of support extends only to the natural soil: one cannot claim it for artificial erections. An undertaking " to support and take care of " a person does not imply that the person to be supported is not to use proper exertions to support himself. Bull v. Mc- Crea, 8 B. Man. 422. A devise for the "support of the family " of the testator is a devise for the support of his widow, and the maintenance and education of his cliildren. Addison v. Bowie, 2 Bland, 606. How to construe a bequest of a comfortable support, or a reasonable support for testator's widow, — see Tolley ti. Greene, 2 Sandf. Ch. 91; Thompson v. Carmicliael, 3 Id. 120.