Suit for quantum meruit and suit for specific performance

Suit for quantum meruit. Quantum meruit means "as much as is earned". Where one person has rendered service to another in circumstances showing that it was to be paid for, though no remuneration was fixed, the law infers a promise to pay. It also lets a party who has done part of the work when the other party breaks the contract recover the value of what he has done. Two conditions apply:

1. the original contract must have been discharged; and
2. the claim must be brought by the party not in default.

Damages are compensatory, while quantum meruit is restitutory: it pays for the value of the work done. The claim arises, for example, when an agreement is discovered to be void or a contract becomes void; when something is done non-gratuitously; where one party prevents the other from completing; and where a divisible contract has been partly performed and the benefit enjoyed. If X wrongfully revokes his agent Y's authority before Y finishes, Y can recover on a quantum meruit for the work done and expenses incurred; and a buyer who accepts the first of two instalments of 50 cotton bales must pay for those 50.

Suit for specific performance. Where damages are not an adequate remedy for the breach, the court may, in its discretion, direct the party in breach to perform his promise as the contract's terms require. It is an equitable remedy (under the Specific Relief Act, 1963), typically granted for contracts for the sale of land or of a unique article, where money cannot give the plaintiff what he bargained for. It is not granted for contracts of a personal nature, such as contracts of personal service.