Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: partner lease agreements

A partner can withdraw from a partnership at any time. However, a withdrawal from a partnership may be "wrongful," meaning the withdrawal violates some express or implied term of the partnership agreement. All partnerships have partnership agreements, by the way; they aren't always in writing, but if not, an oral agreement or an agreement implied by the parites' conduct can be found and enforced by the court.

From the creditors' point of view, all partners are liable for all partnership debts, and withdrawing from a partnership does not relieve the withdrawing partner from debts already incurred, including long-term leases in the partnership's name.

As between the partners or former partners, liability for debts can be reallocated by agreement, so that if an outside creditor collects more than Partner A's share from Partner A, the Partner A can demand contribution or reimbursement from Partner B. Unless there is an agreement (or the court finds good cause for a different allocation), however, A and B will ultimately each be responsible for 50% of partnership debts even though the outside creditor can recover up to 100% from either in the first instance.

A wrongful withdrawal might cause a court to place additional financial responsibility on the withdrawing partner, on the theory that the withdrawal caused the partnership to sustain damages.

Re: partner lease agreements

Probably not, but it depends on what your agreement says and whether it is legally binding. It also may depend upon how you and your partner conducted your business before she decided to bail out.