Far be it from me to make a feeble attempt to improve the signal to whining
ratio, but....

I'm working on a case where some jerk is suing his next door neighbor over
alterations made in adjoining rowhouses in fabulous New York City, in da
Bureau of Minhattin.  Both houses are toward the middle of a group of 4 or 5
built at the same time in the mid 1880's.   The specific problem is that in
the course of having chimney flues lined by a Contractor, the rehabber is
alleged by the allegedly injured neighbor to have crossed over the party
line, and in effect worked on (and of course damaged, to the tune of billions
of dollars) the home of the neighbor.  As usual, the chimneys in the row of
houses project into one house  and have flat backs on the opposite walls
(your chimney breast projects into your house, and the flat wall behind the
chimney breast is your neighbor's).

I have 2 questions:

Foist, as I remember from Joisey City days, the text of my deed said I was
the owner of an undivided half of a party wall (or something like that),
which it seems to me allows for the flues running around in the wall.  This
would mean I own my flues, even if they are beyond the midline of the wall,
and my neighbor owns his flues, even if they are more than halfway into my
wall opposite.  Essentially, the property line in such a wall is not down the
centerline of the wall; either it varies around the flues, or is in fact off
center in the wall so that my flues are mine, and yours are yours.  Anybvody
know anything about this?

Second, has anybody got a learned treatise or other scholarly tome which
tells 19th century builders how to build brick chimeys in rowhouses, and how
to frame floors around them so that one doesn't have joists in the chimney
breast?  I have checked Bricks & Brownstones and my c.1890s masonry
construction and superintendence books, but don't see much of anything useful.

Thanks.

Ralph