QUASI-CONTRACTUS (Lat.). In Civil Law. An obligation similar in character to that of a contract, but which arises not from an agreement of parties but from some rela tion between them, or from a voluntary act of one of them.
An obligation springing from voluntary and lawful acts of parties in the absence of any agreement. Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 171.
An obligation which grows out of certain relations between persons whereby they be come bound to each other by duties similar to those arising from a contract. Morey, Rom. L. 371.
Quasi-contracts were a well-defined class under the civil law. By the civil code of Louisiana they are defined to be "the lawful and purely voluntary acts of a man, from which there results any obligation whatever to a third person and sometimes a reciprocal obligation between parties. • In quasi-con tracts the obligation arises not from consent, as in the case of contracts, but from the law or natural equity. • According to Prof. Ames (Lect. on Leg. Hist. 160) the term was not found in the common law, but it has been taken by writ ers of the common law from the Roman law. It may be considered now as quite domesti cated even to the extent of being used as the title of a very valuable common-law text book : Keener, Quasi-Contract. They are "founded (1). upon a record, (2) upon a stat utory, official or•customary duty, or (3) upon the fundamental principle of justice that no one ought unjustly to enrich himself at the expense of another." Also, at p. 255, they "are really equitable liabilities upon which the law assumes to give a remedy." In (1890) 44 Ch. D. p. 107, Lindley, L. J., remarks that owing to the unfortunate ter minology of our law, . . . the expression "implied contract" has been used not only to denote a genuine contract established by in ference, but also an obligation which does not arise from any real contract, but which can be enforced as if it had a contractual origin. Obligations of this class are called
by the civilians obligati:ones livasi es) con tractu. • The subject will be found treated in a sub title of CONTRACT, supra. See also CONTRACT UAL OBLIGATION.
It need only be added here that quasi-con tracts were in the Roman law of almost in finite variety but were divided into five class es Negotiorum gestic), the management of the affairs of another, without authority. 2. Tutehe administratio, the administration of a tutorship. 3. Rai communis administratio, or communflo bonorum, the management of common property. 4. Hereditatis aditio, the entering upon an inheritance. 5. Indebiti solutio, payment by mistake of money not due. They all have certain general features, as that from their nature each has an af finity with some contract ; and persons un der disabilities may be affected by them though incapable of contracting.
A common error which should be avoided is the confusion of quasi-contracts with im plied contracts. The latter are real con tracts, differing from express contracts in the nature of the proof by which they are established ; but in quasi-contracts the essen tial part of the contract, the agreement or convention, is wanting ; Maine, Anc. L. 332. See, generally, Inst. 3. 28; Dig. 3. 5; Ayl. Pond. b. 4, tit. 31; 1 Bro. Civ. L. 386; Poth. Obl. n. 113; Merl. Rep. b. t.; Keener, Quasi Contract ; Howe, Stud. Civ. L. Lect. x.; Mor ey, Rom. Law 371; Sohm, Inst. Rom. Law 315-21; Woodward, Quasi-Contracts (1913).