Shar’s Cars, L.L.C. v. Elder
Utah Court of Appeals
97 P.3d 724 (2004)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Jeffrey Birschbach opened a car dealership called Shar’s Cars, L.L.C. (collectively, plaintiffs). Deloy Elder and Bruce Rutherford were partners in a used car wholesale partnership. In early 1998, Birschbach and the Elder-Rutherford partnership agreed to share the Shar’s Cars lot to sell cars. In August 1998, Elder terminated the Elder-Rutherford partnership. They did not go through a formal dissolution process but closed the Elder-Rutherford partnership’s bank account. Birschbach and Rutherford agreed to continue a new partnership together. In October 1998, Birschbach closed down Shar’s Cars. One of Shar’s Cars’s creditors brought suit against Shar’s Cars, and Shar’s Cars in turn filed a third-party claim against Elder and Rutherford. The trial court found that Elder was not liable for partnership debts incurred after he left the Elder-Rutherford partnership. At that point, the partnership’s net loss was $45,000. The trial court entered a judgment against Elder for half that amount, $22,500. Elder appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Greenwood, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 803,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
