Quasi contracts and two of them discussed

Quasi contracts. In certain special circumstances the law imposes obligations like those that arise from a contract, even though the parties never made one; they rest on the principle that no one should be allowed to enrich himself unjustly at another's expense. There is no offer, no acceptance and neither agreement nor promise, yet the law imposes an obligation. Their features: they arise not from agreement but are imposed by law; duty, not promise, is their basis; the right is a right to money; and it is available against specific persons.

(1) Necessaries supplied to a person incapable of contracting (s. 68). If a person incapable of contracting, or anyone he is legally bound to support, is supplied with necessaries suited to his condition in life, the supplier is entitled to be reimbursed from the property of the incapable person.

• What counts as necessaries: goods and services suited to the person's station in life and actual needs at the time: food, clothing, medicine, lodging and, for a student, books. Luxuries, or ordinary goods he already has enough of, are not necessaries.
• Why the claim is against property: the person cannot contract, so he is not personally liable; the law gives the supplier a claim only against his property, so that he is protected without being bound by a promise he could not give.
• Example: a chemist who supplies regular medicines to a man of unsound mind living alone is repaid out of the man's bank balance; a jeweller who sells him a gold chain is not.

(2) Payment by an interested person (s. 69). A person who has an interest in a payment that someone else is legally bound to make, and who makes the payment for that reason, can recover the amount from that other person.

• Interested, not a volunteer: the payer must have an interest of his own to protect, such as property that would be lost if the payment were not made. A stranger who pays another's debt simply out of goodwill has no claim under s. 69.
• The other must be legally bound: the payment must be one the other person was legally obliged to make, not one the payer was bound to make himself.
• Example: a tenant whose landlord has not paid the municipal tax pays it to stop the house being attached and sold, and recovers the amount from the landlord; a neighbour who pays the same tax out of friendship cannot.