If One Out of Four Partners Dies, Do The Surviving Three Have to Stay Together?

Rav Yitchak Grossman

Question: What if there are three or four partners in a business and one of them dies. Do the surviving partners have the right to terminate the partnership?

Answer:  As we said, the heirs never committed to be part of this partnership, so they can leave it whenever they want. So too, the surviving partners never committed to be partners with the heirs, so they can terminate them from the partnership if they so wish.

Whether or not the two or three surviving partners can terminate the entire partnership at this point or not is the subject of a machlokes Acharonim. Some say that their partnership is still in tact and remains in force for the duration of the agreement, while others say that once one of the partners dies, the entire partnership unravels and they all have the right to leave at this point.