Short answer. No. Under Article 1835 of the Civil Code, the dissolution of the partnership does not of itself discharge the existing liability of any partner. Debts already owed to creditors survive the break-up, and a partner stays answerable for them unless he obtains a genuine release in the way the article allows.
What the law says
The dissolution of the partnership does not of itself discharge the existing liability of any partner.
Civil Code, Article 1835 — Existing Liability Survives Dissolution. Read the full provision →
Dissolution is not a discharge
Many partners assume that once the firm is dissolved, the debts dissolve with it. Article 1835 says the opposite in its very first line: dissolution does not of itself discharge the existing liability of any partner. Ending the partnership only changes the relationship among the partners and starts the process of winding up; it does not touch the rights that creditors already hold. A creditor who was owed money before the split can still pursue the partner who is liable for that obligation afterwards. The break-up is an internal event between the partners — it cannot, by itself, cancel what is owed to outsiders who were never party to their decision to part ways.
How a partner can actually be released
Article 1835 does provide one clean route out. A partner is discharged from an existing liability upon dissolution by an agreement to that effect between himself, the partnership creditor and the person or partnership continuing the business. So a release needs three parties, and crucially it needs the creditor's own consent — the remaining partners cannot release a departing partner by agreeing among themselves. The article adds that such an agreement may be inferred from the course of dealing between a creditor who knows of the dissolution and the person or partnership continuing the business. A creditor who, knowing the firm has broken up, deals only with the continuing business may be treated as having agreed to look to it alone.
The estate of a deceased partner
Death is one way a partnership dissolves, and the article addresses it directly. The individual property of a deceased partner shall be liable for all obligations of the partnership incurred while he was a partner. His death does not wipe the slate clean; his separate estate remains exposed to partnership debts that arose during his membership. But the article sets a priority: that liability is subject to the prior payment of his separate debts. His own personal creditors are paid first from his individual property, and partnership creditors reach what is left. The estate answers for the firm's debts, but only behind the deceased's personal obligations.
What this means in practice
The practical lesson is that walking away from a partnership does not shake off the debts you were already on the hook for. If you are leaving a firm, a mere internal agreement that the others will "take care of" the debts protects you only against them, not against the creditor — the creditor can still come after you until it has genuinely consented to your release. Documenting who assumes which obligations, and securing the creditor's written agreement where you need a true discharge, is far safer than relying on the fact of dissolution. Because the wording turns on consent and the course of dealing, anyone exiting a partnership with outstanding debts should take advice before treating themselves as free of them.