Bava Metzia 117: Sharing a Ceiling/Floor: Who is Responsible for Damages?

Daf 116 began our last Perek, Perek X. It all introduced a new Mishna concerned with shared ownership of a home.  In daf 117, we learn from the conversations around two new Mishnah that our ancestors were considering issues similar to our modern concerns regarding responsibility for repairs and mishaps.  

First, the Gemara of daf 117 focuses on whether or not a person or family that was living above another unit should be permitted to live with the lower unit's residence if that person does not agree to repair his home.  The Gemara considers the halacha on who is responsible for which repairs.  It also looks at surrounding circumstances that may add to one's claim that he is not responsible.  One of the examples is that of a leak in the floor. When the hole causes damage to the plaster, who is responsible for fixing that plaster? 

A new Mishna teaches that if two people own a home and the person on the lower story refuses to rebuild his home, the person in the upper story is entitled to live 'downstairs' until the repairs have been complete.  Rabbi Yochanan points out that Rabbi Yehuda mentioned in three places that we should not derive benefit from the home of another.  In this case, the proof for his argument is in the walls which will have been blackened (until the house is rebuilt).  

The Gemara then points out that people who ask to rebuild their homes with nicer stones, for example, should be permitted to do so.  Anything to better their residence is accepted.  But when someone asks abut rebuilding with shoddier supplies, his request will be ignored.  The rabbis offer number of examples which teach us about how life was lived at that time.  We learn that generally the person on the first floor was responsible for his ceiling; the person on the second floor is responsible for his floor.  Some examples of increasing the value of one's home include removing windows and building less tall ceilings.  Each of these changes might make the house less stable. 

The rabbis debate about whether or not the person living on the upper floor has rights to the land upon which the house is built.  Some rabbis suggest that the owner below owns two thirds of the fields while the upper floor owner owns one third of the surrounding land.  Some say the ratio is 3/4 to 1/4, and some say that the owner owns all of the land.

A new Mishna teaches us a number of guidelines when it comes to responsibility for property.  If one person owns an olive press that is located inside of a cave through rock, and another person owns a garden above the press, the ceiling of the press might collapse, causing the garden to fall inward.  In such a case, the Mishna teaches that the gardener grows below until the time that the olive press' owner can rebuild.  

A wall or tree that collapses in the public domain must be removed and paid for by their owners.  That is, if someone notice that they might fall and warned the owner to remove theses items.  Another example is provided where two owners are arguing about who owns certain ones.  Finally, we learn that an employer must pay a labourer what was agreed upon.  He cannot pay in 'hay" when he had said he would pay in money.  Similarly, he cannot pay in money when the labourer planned to take hay as his payment.