Ronald P. Boaz v. Rozanne Jackson, et al.

The plaintiff claimed that in 1997 he entered into a verbal partnership agreement with the defendant to open and operate the antique store that the plaintiff managed for the next twelve years. He further claimed that the defendant withheld profits and other benefits of the partnership  from him, in violation of their agreement. The plaintiff accordingly asked the trial court to dissolve  the partnership and to award him his share of the partnership assets. The defendant filed a Rule  12.02(6) motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint for failure to state a claim. She denied that she had ever been in any sort of partnership relationship with the plaintiff and claimed, instead, that he was a salaried managerial employee-at-will of her solely-owned corporation. The trial court  granted the defendant’s motion. The allegations in the complaint, which we must take as true, state a claim for relief.  Additionally, material extraneous to the complaint was submitted and presumably considered by the trial court, requiring that the motion be treated as one for summary judgment. Disputes of material fact exist in the filings, precluding the grant of summary judgment.
Accordingly, we reverse.