A partner who takes full-time employment inconsistent with a fundamental term requiring equal contribution of time and effort commits an anticipatory breach of the partnership agreement. The innocent partner's agreement to the departure and subsequent assumption of all partnership duties constitutes acceptance of the repudiation, terminating the partnership, without need for express words of termination. The question whether the contractual doctrine of repudiatory breach operates to dissolve partnerships (raised in Hurst v Bryk [2002] 1 AC 185) was noted but left open.
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