Quantum Meruit in United Kingdom

Quantum Meruit in Contract Law

According to Questions & Answers Law of Contract: Law Revision and Study Guide (Law Questions & Answers, Oxford University Press), by Adrian Chandler and Ian Brown, Quantum Meruit may have the following meaning: see quasi-contract – n. A field of law covering cases in which one person has been unduly enriched at the expense of another and is under an obligation quasi ex contractu (as if from a contract) to make restitution to him. In many cases of quasi-contract, the defendant has received the benefit from the claimant himself. The claimant may have paid money to him under a mistake of fact, or under a void contract, or may have supplied services under the mistaken belief that he was contractually bound to do so. In that case, he is entitled to be paid a reasonable sum and is said to sue on a quantum meruit (as much as he deserved). Alternatively, the claimant may have been required to pay to a third party money for which the defendant was primarily liable. The defendant’s receipt of the benefit need not necessarily, however, have been from the claimant. It is enough that it was at the latter’s expense, and he may therefore be liable in quasi-contract for money paid to him by a third party on account of the claimant.

Definition of Quantum Meruit

‘as much as is deserved’.