Girard Bank v. Haley
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
332 A.2d 443 (1975)
Anna Reid and other partners, including Haley (defendant), formed a partnership in 1958 to lease real property for profit with no fixed term or particular undertaking specified; in 1971 Reid sent a letter to the other partners terminating the partnership, but the partners couldn't agree on winding up the business, and Reid died before the dispute was resolved. The chancellor concluded the partnership actually terminated at Reid's death rather than by her earlier letter, giving the surviving partners an option to purchase her interest under the partnership agreement's survivorship terms, and awarded her estate a payment based on that option; the executors appealed.
Whether an at-will partnership, having no fixed term or particular undertaking, is dissolved by a partner's letter expressing her intent to terminate it, or only by that partner's later death.