The Mullions are just not that bad.

In our last installement, we looked at some rather unfortunate mullions framed in a stairwell.  Let's take a close look at the framing around the wall.  The upper portion of the wall is gable framed above trusses that bear at the top plate.  This is good because it allows the trusses to brace the top plate for out-of-plane wind resistance.  To lessen the axial load on the wall, a three-ply beam spanning the width of the stairwell was placed approximately 3-4ft inside the exterior wall.  Somehow, someone missed a few inches of framing, which resulted in the trusses NOT bearing on the exterior wall.  If the trusses do not bear on the wall, how can they brace the wall to resist out-of-plane wind pressure?