Defendant had also stolen the partnership's business. He had personally taken over the business of some customers by telling them that the partnership was being dissolved; in other cases, he simply took over partnership contracts without telling the customers that he was then operating on his own. Plaintiff also learned that defendant's deceit had included the withdrawal, without plaintiff's knowledge, of partnership funds for defendant's personal use in $1978$ in an amount exceeding $$11,000.$ Source is from

Casetext.com's treatment of Gilroyv. Conway, $151$ Mich. App. $628,391$ N$.$W$\mathrm{.}2$d $419($Mich$.$ Ct$.$ App. $1986).$ Now consider these questions:

For what did the court award the plaintiff $$53,000$ for?

The Court characterizes the defendant as having cheated his partner. That is$,$ Conway cortamitted fraud. Gilroy said his business had been stolen. Fraud is a tort, a personal wrong. Punitive damages may be awarded against a tortfeasor $-$ the person or legal person committing the personal wrong. Even in a jurisdiction that generally does not allow these kinds of damages in contract. In fact, punitive damages are sometimes awarded for breach of partnership fiduciary duty. There are some cases, including Cadwallader, in which a New York law firm was found to have wrongfully expelled a partner lawyer from membership in its Florida offices controlled by the New York firm. The trial court awarded the wronged lawyer $$500,000$ in punitive damages. The appeals court construing the same APA as a court construed in Gilroy, it's said: