Section 6.3 Differences Between Quasi-Contract, Express Contract, and Contract Implied-in-Fact

• Library: Contracts 2016 Supp

B. (§6.3) Differences Between Quasi-Contract, Express Contract, and Contract Implied-in-Fact

The courts have noted confusion and ambiguity in the caselaw among duties imposed by an express contract, by a contract implied-in-fact, and by quasi-contract. Bennett v. Adams, 362 S.W.2d 277, 280 (Mo. App. S.D. 1962). In Bennett, Presiding Judge Ruark, writing for the Southern District Court of Appeals, pinned the responsibility for the confusion on the “various declarations of the courts” that had been caused by “loose expression[s] touching implied contracts, and frequently the distinction which obtains, accurately speaking, between contracts implied by the law and contracts implied by or inferred from the facts” of the case. Id. at 280. As noted in §6.2 above, a quasi-contract or implied-in-law contract is not a true contract, but the duties created by its imposition are treated as such procedurally to prevent the inequitable retention of a benefit. Westerhold v. Mullenix Corp., 777 S.W.2d 257, 263 (Mo. App. E.D. 1989).

The core difference among the three so-called contractual duties—under...