Short answer. Article 1830 lists a wide set of causes: the end of the partnership's agreed term or undertaking, a partner's own will, all the partners' agreement, expulsion under the partnership agreement, an event making the business unlawful, loss of a specifically promised contribution, a partner's death, insolvency, civil interdiction, or a court decree.
What the law says
Dissolution is caused: (1) Without violation of the agreement between the partners: (a) By the termination of the definite term or particular undertaking specified in the agreement; (b) By the express will of any partner, who must act in good faith, when no definite term or particular is specified; (c) By the express will of all the partners who have not assigned their interests or suffered them to be charged for their separate debts, either before or after the termination of any specified term or particular undertaking; (d) By the expulsion of any partner from the business bona fide in accordance with such a power conferred by the agreement between the partners; (2) In contravention of the agreement between the partners, where the circumstances do not permit a dissolution under any other provision of this article, by the express will of any partner at any time; (3) By any event which makes it unlawful for the business of the partnership to be carried on or for the members to carry it on in partnership; (4) When a specific thing which a partner had promised to contribute to the partnership, perishes before the delivery; in any case by the loss of the thing, when the partner who contributed it having reserved the ownership thereof, has only transferred to the partnership the use or enjoyment of the same; but the partnership shall not be dissolved by the loss of the thing when it occurs after the partnership has acquired the ownership thereof; (5) By the death of any partner; (6) By the insolvency of any partner or of the partnership; (7) By the civil interdiction of any partner; (8) By decree of court under the following article.
Civil Code, Article 1830 — Causes of Dissolution. Read the full provision →
Dissolution consistent with the partnership agreement
Article 1830 groups several causes under dissolution that does not violate the partners' agreement: the term or undertaking the partners specified simply running out; a partner's own express, good-faith will to end things where no term was fixed; the express will of all the partners who have not assigned or encumbered their interests; and the good-faith expulsion of a partner under a power the partnership agreement itself conferred. These are the ordinary, foreseen ways a partnership comes to an end.
Dissolution that goes against the agreement
The article also allows dissolution in contravention of the agreement between the partners — by the express will of any single partner, at any time, where the circumstances do not fit any of the other listed grounds. This is a narrower, catch-all route: a partner can still force an end to the partnership even against what was agreed, though doing so outside the agreement's own terms can carry its own consequences that Article 1830 does not itself spell out.
Causes outside anyone's control
Several grounds do not depend on any partner's will at all: an event that makes carrying on the partnership's business unlawful; the loss, before delivery, of a specific thing a partner had promised to contribute, or the loss of a thing whose ownership the contributing partner had reserved while giving the partnership only its use; a partner's death; the insolvency of a partner or of the partnership itself; and a partner's civil interdiction. Article 1830 is explicit, though, that loss of a thing after the partnership has already acquired ownership of it does not dissolve the partnership.
And by court decree
The final ground listed is dissolution by decree of court under the following article — meaning a court can order a partnership dissolved, under grounds the next article in the code sets out rather than this one. Article 1830 itself does not describe what those judicial grounds are; it simply establishes that a court decree is one of the recognized causes of dissolution alongside the others listed here.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Luzviminda J. Villareal, et al. vs. Donaldo Efren C. Ramirez, et al, G.R. No. 144214, July 14, 2003 — read the decision on LawPhil →