This is an action by the plaintiffs to recover on a fire insurance policy issued to them by the defendant. In a companion case, the plaintiffs brought a similar action on a policy issued by the Home Insurance Company. The trial court found the issues for the plaintiffs in each case, and the defendant insurance companies have appealed. It has been stipulated by the parties that any judgment rendered by this court in the present case shall be conclusive upon the parties in the action against the Home Insurance Company.
The case was presented to the trial court on the following stipulation of facts: On January 31, , the plaintiffs were the owners in fee of the northerly half of a four-story, commercial building in New Haven, hereinafter referred to as the Frontis building. The southerly half of this building was then owned by a stranger to this suit. Adjoining the Frontis building on the north was another four-story building, hereinafter referred to as the Maguire building.
The Frontis building and the Maguire building had a mutual system of support in that each building relied for vertical and lateral support upon a common party wall and the other building itself. The party wall was twelve inches wide, was made of interlaced brick, and extended vertically from the basement to the top of the third story of each building.
It constituted the entire north wall of the Frontis building from front to rear and also served as the south wall of the Maguire building. The property line ran through the center of the wall. Each pocket was approximately two inches wide, ten inches high, and four inches deep. At each floor level there was one floor joist and pocket about every eighteen inches on each side of the party wall from the front to the rear of each building. The wall and the two buildings were constructed in this fashion some time prior to , at which time the center line of the party wall was mentioned in a deed of a predecessor in title of the Maguire building as the southerly boundary of the Maguire building.
Both the Frontis and the Maguire buildings have been in separate ownership since Above the third story of each building, directly above the bonded party wall, there was a separate unbonded four-inch wall on the Frontis side and an eight-inch wall on the Maguire side for the fourth story of each building. On January 31, , a fire occurred in the Maguire building, and extensive damage was caused to the second, third and fourth stories of that building.
