In a recent case in Illinois, a question arose as to whether a party who owned a town home and shared a common wall between their home and their neighbor could join the neighbor as a defendant when a fire occurred at the neighbor’s residence. The fire was undetected by the fire alarm system that was installed by the alarm company at the neighbor’s town house.
The plaintiff brought the action against the alarm company for failure to maintain the neighbor’s fire alarm system. The plaintiff then attempted to join the neighbor as a defendant based on his contractual indemnity agreement with the alarm company and for the neighbor’s negligent failure to maintain his alarm system.