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Quasi-Contracts And Their Relation With The Contracts
A quasi-contract is a contract that is formed by the court itself when there is no prior agreement between the parties with regard to the services or the goods. The motive behind such contracts is that no one should be unjustly enriched at the behest of the other. A quasi-contract is formed in the court of law in order to solve a dispute that might have arisen due to the performance of the contract by one party but the other party has not played the part it was supposed to.
The quasi-contracts are based on the Latin maxim Nemo debet locupletari ex aliena jactura which denotes that no one should grow rich at the behest of the other person's loss. It has its basis in the principles of natural justice viz. justice, equity, and good conscience.
There are certain essentials that are necessary for the formation of a quasi-contract, like, the quasi-contract should not be formed by a contract and it should be such that it can be enforceable by the law. A quasi-contract is a right in personam, meaning that it is available to a person against another person. The quasi-contracts rewards in a way, the person who has spent the money or has done something for someone so that there is no unjust enrichment of a person against the other. The quasi-contracts do not exist originally between the parties but are a legal fiction that is created by courts in order to provide relief to a party who has done something that is favorable to the other party.
The quasi-contracts are dealt with under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 from Sections 68 to 72 and thus deal with five kinds of scenarios that may arise out of the quasi-contract like situation: (I) Supply of necessities (S.68) (II) Payment by interested persons (S.69) (III) Liability to pay for non-gratuitous acts (S.70)
(IV) Finder of goods (S.71) (V) A mistake oR coercion (S.72)
(I) THE SUPPLY OF NECESSITIES: A minor or lunatic person is incapable of entering into contracts thus in case necessities in form of food, clothing, shelter, etc are provided to such persons they have a right to be reimbursed through the property of the minor or lunatic person. The term necessities is a wide one and does not only include bare necessities but also things that are utilitarian but seem to be luxury for some. Those cases would not be dealt with here where the minor has entered into trading contracts and the same would not be considered under necessities.
(II) PAYMENT BY INTERESTED PERSONS: When a person makes a payment for some other person who was bound to make that payment by law has to pay the person back who made the payment in his stead. The person in whose favor the interested person made the payment is bound to pay back to the interested person. It is also essential that the payment must have been made by the interested person to some other person.
(III) LIABILITY TO PAY FOR NON-GRATUITOUS ACTS: In case a payment is mad or a thing is given to a person by another in a manner which is non-gratuitous then such person is bound to pay back or make good such payment made or such object received from such person.
(IV) FINDER OF GOODS: When a person finds some goods that do not belong to him, then the person is bound to return such goods back to the person to whom they belonged and should make an honest effort to find out who they belonged to and in case he consumes it or the object or payment cease to exist in his custody then he should make good the loss suffered by the person to whom it actually belonged.
(V) A MISTAKE OR COERCION: When a person makes a payment by mistake or under the coercion then he can recover that payment and ask to make good his loss, for eg: a person by mistake pays the bill for something that he had already paid is bound to get the extra payment made by him back.
The quas-contracts are thus similar to the contracts both dealt under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and for breach or infringement of both of them, remedies are available under the Contract Act.
