quasi-contract

A quasi-contract is not a contract at all: there is no offer, acceptance or consent. The law imposes an obligation resembling a contractual one because it would be unjust for a person to keep a benefit. Chapter V of the Indian Contract Act (sections 68 to 72) calls these “certain relations resembling those created by contract”.

They are: supply of necessaries to a person incapable of contracting, such as a minor, recoverable from his property (section 68); payment by an interested person of money another is bound to pay (section 69); obligation to pay for a non-gratuitous act enjoyed (section 70); responsibility of a finder of goods (section 71); and return of money paid or things delivered by mistake or under coercion (section 72).

Example

Money paid twice by mistake to the supplier was recoverable under section 72 as a quasi-contract, though there was no agreement to refund.

In Indian law

• ss.68 to 72, Indian Contract Act, 1872

See also

quantum meruit · restitution · contract · minor

Read more in the study notes

• Quasi-contracts (Contract I)
• Forgery and property marks (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• Pleadings: fundamental rules, verification and amendment (Order VI) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
• Agreement and contract: meaning, essentials and kinds (Contract I)
• Minor's agreements (Contract I)
• Damages and remoteness (Contract I)