Quasi Contract Law & Legal Definition
Quasi contract is a binding obligation that is imposed by the courts to avoid injustice or unjust enrichment.
Alternative ways of describing a quasi contract are:
- An implied-in-law contract imposed by the courts to prevent injustice.
- A special form of contract that lacks mutual assent of the parties but which is imposed on the parties by the courts to avoid injustice.
- A situation in which there is an obligation as if there was a contract, although the technical requirements of a contract have not been fulfilled.
It is also called an implied-in-law contract.
For example:
P agrees to work for D for one year, payment of the $30,000 salary to be made at the end. P works for six months, then unjustifiably quits. P cannot recover "on the contract," because he has not substantially performed. But he will probably be allowed to recover in quasi-contract, for the fair value of the benefits he has conferred on D. The court will estimate these benefits (which will probably be one-half of the $30,000 annual salary), and will subtract the damage to D of P's not performing the second six months.
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