If my business partner took all ofour equipment/money and disappeared without warning, what do I do?
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If my business partner took all ofour equipment/money and disappeared without warning, what do I do?
I opened a landscape company with good friend of mine and we were in business for a little over 2years when out of nowhere I came home to an empty garage. He took all of the equipment and even closed the business bank account and took all of the money. We don’t have any written or verbal agreements on what we would do if we decided to call off the partnership because we never figured he would just take everything and disappear. What do I do? Shouldn’t he of given me the option to buy him out? What about all of the clients we lost because he took all of the equipment?
Asked on June 29, 2011 under Business Law, Indiana
Answers:
M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Okay well you just learned a very big lesson about partnership agreements and having them in writing. But that will not help you at this point so let's move on. Although you do not have an agreement s to dissolution of the partnership, you do have a verbal agreement as to the partnership itself and running the business and the equipment. Although you did not say in whose name the equipment is at this point or who paid for it (in name only) or if it is owned outright, he can not do what he did. So you will need to sue him as soon as you can and ask for a return of the equipment so that the business can continue. You are also going to ask that he be enjoined from contacting any clients of the business to do the work in his own name. Get legal help here. Good luck
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