Legal Question in Business Law in Washington

Re: My partner quit

I assume your signed contract is a partnership agreement. I assume the business equipment belongs to the partnership.

He cannot void the contract without your agreement unless he can show that your materially breached it somehow. He also cannot just walk away with the business equipment. This is meant to protect the partnership's creditors as well as to protect you, the other partner. A partnership, like a marriage, does not just go away when one party has had enough.

The partnership agreement should address what will happen if one partner wants to leave the partnership. If it does, the provisions there will dictate what happens next. If the partnership agreement is silent on this subject, or if you do not have a partnership agreement, then the state "default" rules will indicate what happens next.

Your next step will depend on what the agreement says as well as what you would like to do going forward. Do you want to continue running the business on your own if that is economically possible, or do you just want your fair share of whatever is left after partnership obligations to third parties are resolved? Also, is this the kind of business that could potentially be sold as a going concern, or does it evaporate if the original players are not there? As you can see,this is a fairly fact specific question. For that reason, I would encourage you to at least buy an hour or two of an attorney's time to review the specifics in your case and decide the best course of action for you. With luck, and with sufficient information specific to your case, you and your soon-to-be-former partner may be able to arrive at a solution without spending too much on legal fees.