Noone v. Price

Facts

Mr. and Mrs. Noone (Plaintiffs) bought a house on the side of a mountain. Union Carbide built the house in 1928 or 1929. The Plaintiffs bought the house in 1960. In 1964, Plaintiffs became aware that the wall under their front porch was giving way and that the living room plaster had cracked. Price (Defendant) lived below the Plaintiffs at the foot of the hill in a house built in 1912. Between 1912 and 1919, a wall of stone and concrete was built along the side of the hill, ten to twelve feet behind Defendant’s house. The Defendant purchased her house in 1955 and lived there until 1972, when Defendant sold the property. Before Defendant’s purchase of the house, the wall had fallen into disrepair. The Plaintiffs, upon discovering that their house was slipping down the hill, complained to Defendant that their problem was the result of deterioration in the Defendant’s retaining wall. Defendant did nothing to repair the wall and Plaintiffs expended $6,000 to repair the damage to t heir house. The Plaintiffs commenced this action in 1968 for damages of $50,000 for failure of Defendant to provide lateral support to Plaintiffs’ land and negligent failure to provide lateral support to Plaintiffs’ home. Defendant made a motion for summary judgment, which the lower court denied in part and granted in part. The lower court found that Plaintiffs had no right to recover for damage to their buildings, but left open the question of whether Plaintiffs could recover for damage to their land. The lower court stated that there is a duty of lateral support to the land but not for any structures on the land. The Plaintiffs appealed.