Court Opinion

ID: 9582426
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:26:40.20318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:47.320024
License: Public Domain

Justice PLEICONES.
I concur in the decision to affirm the circuit court order, but write separately on the publicity tort since I conclude that appellant has not stated a cause of action.
Appellant, as assignee of her late husband’s estate, sued the law firm (respondent) of which her husband had been a named partner at the time of his death, for respondent’s continuing use of his name after his death. At common law, the surviving partners in a business firm had the right to continue to use the firm name after the death of a partner. See Mendelsohn v. Equit. Life Assur. Soc., 178 Misc. 152, 33 N.Y.S.2d 733 (N.Y.App.Term.1942). In the absence of a statutory bar or ethical prohibition, local custom permits continued use of a deceased partner’s name in a professional partnership unless the partnership agreement provides otherwise. Id.; see also 68 C.J.S. Partnership § 277 (1998).8 South Carolina recognizes the practice by statute,9 and in the comments to Rule 7.5 of Rule 407, SCACR.10
By custom and practice, a law firm in South Carolina may continue to use the name of a deceased partner unless there is *470an agreement to the contrary. In my opinion, appellant, having asserted no such agreement, has no cause of action against respondent. I would therefore affirm the circuit court’s order.

. Section 277 discusses the use of a deceased partner's name while 68 C.J.S. Partnership § 226 is concerned with continued use of a name after a partner’s retirement.

. See S.C.Code Ann. § 33-41-1070(10) (2006).

. Comment 1 provides in relevant part:
A firm may be designated by the names of all or some of its members, by the names of deceased members where there has been a continuing succession in the firm’s identity or by a trade name such as the "ABC Legal Clinic”.... It may be observed that any firm name including the name of a deceased partner is, strictly speaking, a trade name. The use of such names to designate law firms has proven a useful means of identification. However, it is misleading to use the name of a lawyer not associated with the firm or a predecessor of the firm or the name of a non lawyer.