Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Business partner situation

Buy him out. Do it by negotiation, or by filing suit to force an appraisal and obtain a court order compelling the sale. Feel free to contact me if serious about getting legal help in doing so.

Re: Business partner situation

Well, first of all, owning any percentage of a business is not a license to disrupt the conduct of the business, hang around its premises, or otherwise be a nuisance. If I own 100 shares of IBM, that doesn't allow me to sleep in the executive suite at its world headquarters. The reasoning is exactly the same with a 25% owner of a small LLC. Equity holders of interests in business organizations have very limited and defined rights, and beyond that, they can be trespassers or subject to the remedies for civil harassment.

In any particular case, before deciding that what's going on is permissible and right, or an outrage, someone who's a stranger to the brawl but who can look at the person's contracts and status within the organization should try to verify whether the obstreperous individual has any rights that would justify his conduct, such as a contract to be the LLC's sole manager.

This may be a job for a local lawyer. A quick consultation would be cheaper than destruction of the business.

Legal remedies might include restraining orders for civil harassment or actual suit to establish your rights and adjudicate the underlying dispute.

The applicable law is not simple, and getting an opinion from an attorney who can look at the entire situation from top to bottom is recommended, but on the surface it seems as though you should prevail.