The Business Divorce Law Report
In a case turning on an unusual provision in West Virginia partnership law, the state Supreme Court sent a partnership dissolution action back to the trial judge to determine whether the plaintiffs were actually partners of the partnership that they were trying to dissolve.
The opinion in Sugar Rock, Inc. v. Washburn (Supreme Ct. Appeals June 3, 2016) turned on a specific, and unusual, provision in West Virginia law that requires that an interest in “mining partnerships” to be in writing. The existence of a statute of frauds, however, doesn’t mean that this is not a question that arises with some frequency.