IN RE ESTATE OF HARRY ALBERT BOLINGER, III, Deceased., 1998 MT 303

Summary

The court held that a partnership for the operation of a ranch existed between the father and the deceased based upon the partnership agreement and the partners' relationship and their operation of the ranch after the expiration of the agreement regardless of how the father referred to the ranch operation in his tax returns. The court found that the fair market value at the time of the decedent's death applied when the partners failed to comply with the terms of their agreement and were left without an explicitly agreed upon value for the partnership. The district court properly refused to allocate any of the partnership losses to the estate because the intent of the parties was that the father would claim all of the losses, which was supported by the father's claim of all of the losses on this personal taxes. The judgment did not create a lien against the personal property of the partnership because a lien did not arise prior to execution on the judgment. The issue of fees and costs ...