Partnership Estates

Abstract

The term "partnership estates" is used to designate a certain class of resulting trusts. These particular resulting trusts are classed with joint estates because, as a usual thing, the legal title is held by all the members of a partnership as tenants in common, and in equity, the partners are considered as joint tenants for the purpose of administering the trust. But the legal title is not necessarily held by all the members as tenants in common; for it may be vested in one of the partners as tenant in severalty; in which case there is not only the resulting partnership trust, but an additional subordinate resulting trust to the partners as equitable tenants in common. The legal title may be in one or in several. As will be shown, the partners bear a two-fold relation to the beneficial interest in the property; for each has a separate and distinct lien on the property for any balance which may be found to be due him on an accounting; and as to this lien, his interest is purely potential: the balance on an accounting having been paid, the partners now own the residue of the beneficial interest as tenants in common.