Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Ohio

The short answer to your question is that it is hard to say whether you would have enough to win a case in court, although based on your situation it is likely that you should be entitled to recover from your partner half of what you were forced to pay out.

Based on your question, I am assuming you were simple partners with no formal entity (not an LLC, corporation, etc.). In a basic partnership, each partner is liable for all the debts of the partnership. That means that if one partner takes out a loan in the name of the partnership or in any other way creates debt for the partnership, creditors can go after any of the partners for the full amount. Luckily for the unfortunate partner, he or she can then go after the other non-paying partners to chip in their share based on their interest in the partnership (4 equal partners, each must contribute 25%).

In your situation, you may ultimately have to pay for the charges and debts your partner incurred on behalf of the partnership. However, you would then have the right to go after him for 1/2 of what you paid out. To do this you will need evidence of either the amount of the debt or the amount you were personally required to pay (e.g. credit card statement, sales receipt, cancelled check). While evidence of a proposed buy-out might help you in negotiations between the two of you outside of court, it probably won't have much value to show what your partner would owe you - unless you are pursuing a fraud claim or something other than a simple attempt to get him to pay his share of the expenses.

I hope this helped somewhat answer your question. If you have further questions or would like to discuss your situation in more detail to see if I may be able to do something to help, feel free to contact me.