Corporate Law Do Verbal Partnerships Stand up in court?

[John_Hartman]

Question; Do verbal partnerships still stand up in court, in Colorado?
I have been in the Gemstone and Jewelry business for 37 years. Another businessman that has had a gold mine in his family for over 40 years asked me to partner with him in developing a market for his ore.
I agreed and spent over 200 hours of my time and used my 37 years of contacts to acquire many contracts and some very serious ones as well. I even landed a major deal for big money. He ended up getting greedy and started making unreasonable demands and pulling all kinds of tricks including marketing the ore to other companies.
At this point our partnership is in shambles and he is trying to just blow me off. I am wondering if I have any recourse or if I am just at a terrible loss.
In 1997, I had a salesman file a lawsuit against my company, they claimed Colorado had a Verbal Partnership Agreement law that was enacted in Colorado around 1900 and was still in affect.
Does anyone know of this Law? And if it is still in affect?

 

[dee_dub]

What you want to prove is not a verbal partnership but a verbal partnership agreement. As far as I know, Colorado has not enacted rules of evidence requiring partnerships to be proven by written agreements. Of course, I'm not a Colorado attorney. However, in absence of a written agreement, it's essentially your word against his. Circumstantial evidence (him getting contracts based on your contacts, etc.) probably works in your favour. I'd consult a local attorney for an initial consult. They could give you a decent idea of what your chances are in a lawsuit.

 

[traffic101]

What I've learned so far is that verbal means very little. You always want something in writing and it should be straight forward so that it has no room for interpretations.