Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

implied-in-law contract

An obligation imposed by law because of the conduct of the parties, or some special relationship between them, or because one of them would otherwise be unjustly enriched. 0 An implied-in lawcontract is not actually a contract, but instead a remedy that allows the plaintiff' to recover a benefit conferred on the defendant. - Also termed contract implied in law; quasi-contract; constructive contract. See UNJUST ENRICHMENT. "Since . . . claims for the redress of unjust enrichment did not fit comfortably into either the category of contract or that of tort, they came to be described as claims in quasi-contract. Some of them were originally characterized as being in quantum meruit (as much as he deserved), a form of action used for claims to payment for services. This procedural term has persisted and is sometimes used inexactly as a synonym for the more general term quasi-contract, which refers to any money claim for the redress of unjust enrichment." E. Allan Farnsworth, Contracts § 2.20, at 103 (2d ed. 1990).