Nurse Practitioners: Court Allows Dissolution Of Partnership.
There are grounds for one of the partners to terminate the partnership agreement and dissolve the partner-ship due to the fact the other partner cannot meet her obligation to practice as a nurse practitioner under the partnership agreement.
COURT OF APPEALS OF MICHIGAN October 17, 2017Two nurse practitioners signed business partnership agreements to start an outpatient practice under the supervision of a supervising physician. Soon one of the nurses found out that her partner was writing prescriptions for narcotics for her own father, who was not her patient but the one nurse's patient, and apparently was obtaining and diverting the narcotics to her own use. The one nurse reported her partner to the board of nursing, which resulted in the suspension of the partner's license. The physician then refused to supervise her. The one nurse then notified her partner she intended to terminate the partnership agreement because her now-unlicensed partner could not work for the business.
The Court of Appeals of Michigan ruled there were grounds to terminate the agreement and dissolve the partnership, but it was not quite that simple. Although she was not the one at fault, the partner who wanted to and had the legal right to dissolve the partnership was still bound by what the partnership agreement stipulated as to what would happen upon her dissolution of the partnership. That meant she had to buy out her former partner for 80% of the value of her share, which the agreement stipulated was at least $40,000 cash, even though the new business was still not in the black.
Keller v. Lechel, 2017 WL 4655277 (Mich. App., October 17, 2017).More from nursinglaw.com
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