Our clients were partners in an old family limited partnership that owned valuable waterfront property. Over the years, several relatives passed away. The remaining family members were not seeing eye to eye on a method to dissolve the partnership and split the property or proceeds. The challenge was that litigation was not favored between family members and never is. Our clients simply wanted to sell their portion and move on. The other family members did not want to sell any of the property but keep it.
Our approach was to critically analyze the historical partnership documents to determine the best exit strategy. We determined that the partnership technically ended years prior with the death of a partner and the failure of the partnership to elect a new general partner. If this was the case, all of the property would need to be sold and the proceeds divided.
We prepared a detailed demand letter with all of these facts set forth. We were unable to get the other family members to understand our theory. Therefore, we filed a lawsuit seeking to have the court order that the partnership was terminated, and the property must be sold and proceeds divided.
Once all of the family members obtained lawyers, we commenced a mediation. We were able to resolve the matter by the other family members purchasing our clients’ interests in the partnership for fair value.
