Holmes

This case involves an oral partnership agreement to start a cosmetics company known as “Urban Decay.” Patricia Holmes prevailed on her claim that Sandra Kruger Lerner breached her partnership agreement and that David Soward interfered with the Holmes-Lemer contract, resulting in Holmes’s ouster from the business. Lerner and Soward appeal from the judgment finding them liable to Holmes for compensatory and punitive damages of over $1 million. Holmes appeals from the portion of the judgment imposing joint and several liability for the award of compensatory damages, and the court’s order granting a nonsuit on various causes of action against Soward.

We affirm the judgment against Lerner, primarily because we determine that an express agreement to divide profits is not a prerequisite to prove the existence of a partnership. We also determine that the oral partnership agreement between Lerner and Holmes was sufficiently definite to allow enforcement. We reverse the judgment as to Soward because the finding that he interfered with the contract between Holmes and Lerner is precluded by the jury’s express finding that Lerner never intended to perform the contract. We also…