Corrales

INTRODUCTION

The parties to this appeal, a partnership dispute, agree on one issue. They want us to assume a partnership can consist of one person. Flaving carefully *224 studied the idea of a one-partner partnership in light of the Revised Uniform Partnership Act, we conclude that no such animal exists. If a partnership consists of only two persons, the partnership dissolves by operation of law when one of them departs.

The trial judge in this case had a truly unenviable task before him as he pondered his decision. He found none of the key witnesses credible and had virtually no independent corroboration on which to rely. He was confronted with partnership books and records kept, not by GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), but by “winging it.” He probably developed severe neck pain from constantly shaking his head over the way the participants ran their business.

The parties have now brought this matter to us, and we have reluctantly concluded it has to go back to the long-suffering judge. The case was tried for the most part on a completely erroneous theory. Both parties seem to have proceeded on their assumption of the vitality of a one-person…