Wertin
Ab Group v. Wertin
Opinion
Opinion
Sills, J.
A partnership opportunity can be many things. It can be the prospect of a lucrative contract with the federal government to build a regional tax processing center. (Leff v. Gunter (1983) 33 Cal.3d 508 [ 189 Cal.Rptr. 377 , 658 P.2d 740 ].) Or it can be the prospect of large contingency legal fees earned on a major antitrust suit. (Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman v. Cohen (1983) 146 Cal.App.3d 200 [ 194 Cal.Rptr. 180 ].) Or it can be the right to occupy the space on which the partnership is doing business. (Ferry v. McNeil (1963) 214 Cal.App.2d 411 [ 29 Cal.Rptr. 577 ].)
But a partnership opportunity is most assuredly not the possibility of extracting a discount on a partnership loan by refusing to pay an undisputed debt and putting the creditor to the expense and risk of a lawsuit to collect. If there were such a thing, partners could find themselves under a fiduciary duty to refrain from paying the lawful obligations of their partnership.
Equity, however, does not impose, much less countenance a duty to “stiff’ one’s creditors. Accordingly, we reject the very premise on which appellant John E. Wertin bases this appeal from a judgment after a partnership dissolution and…