CALG’s Rex Heinke and Jessica Weisel recently convinced the California Court of Appeal to reverse a judgment against CALG’s client in a partnership dispute worth millions.
The dispute arose after CALG’s client entered into an oral partnership agreement with the defendant to buy and operate a multimillion-dollar resort in Southern California. When the relationship soured, CALG’s client was frozen out of the business. He then sued, seeking among other relief, a declaration of his rights in the partnership entity. In a bifurcated trial, a jury first found that the parties formed a partnership and the trial court then found that the partnership was terminated in 2016. However, CALG’s client received nothing for his partnership interest.
On appeal, CALG argued that the partnership could not have terminated in 2016 because none of the possible methods of terminating a partnership under the Revised Uniform Partnership Act had been properly carried out. The Court of Appeal agreed. It also rejected the defendant’s arguments: that the partnership terminated automatically when the plaintiff filed his lawsuit, and that RUPA did not apply because the parties had not formed a partnership but a corporate entity under the law of the British Virgin Islands. The Court of Appeal also reversed an award of costs to the defendant.
You can read the Court of Appeal’s opinion by clicking here.