Issue: The court must determine whether Ted has a partnership with Bob, Sally or Luke?

Rules:
A partnership is a juridical person, distinct from its partners, created by a contract
between two or more persons to combine their efforts or resources in determined
proportions and to collaborate at mutual risk for their common profit or commercial
benefit.
Under Louisiana law a contract could be either written or oral. Additionally, jurisprudence
has held that a contract may be form inadvertently by looking at the facts and
circumstances surrounding the formation of the relationship at issue.
According to Hassiepen, the formalities of a written partnership agreement are
unnecessary to prove the existence of a partnership. Thus setting out that a partnership
arises when

1.
2.
3.

Parties join together to carry on a venture for their common benefit

Each party contributes property or services to the venture, and
Each party has a community of interest in the profits of the venture

In order to establish the existence of a partnership without a writing, there must be a

showing that all the parties intended such a relationship
Moreover, the Porter court held that in order to establish the existence of a
partnership without a written agreement, the plaintiff has the burden of proving

1.

The parties must have mutually consented to form a partnership and participate in
the profits which may accrue from the property, skill, or industry, furnished to the
business in determined proportion by them

2.
3.

All parties must share in the losses as well as the profits of the venture
The property or stock of the enterprise must form a community of goods in which
each party has a propriety interest

Also, according to Simpson the court listed the following factors to distinguish a
partner from a position as employee:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Participation in profits and losses

Exposure to liability
Investment in the firm
Partial ownership of firm assets
Voting rights
Position under the partnership agreement
Position under partnership law.

Analysis: