7.3 Doctrine of Quantum Meruit and its Rules

Meaning: "as much as he has earned" — the claim for the value of the work done, where the contract fails mid-course, is discovered void, or is discharged before completion: the restitutionary payment for the part-performance's benefit. The rules (when quantum meruit lies — the list): The discovered-void contract: the work done under a void agreement — the value recoverable (the law refusing the defendant the completed benefit for free); The contract discharged by frustration or breach before completion: the part-work's value recovered (the frustration's restitution face — Unit 6's consequences; the innocent party's recovery for the completed-divisible-parts); The non-gratuitous performance where payment is agreed but the price unset: the reasonable value implied (the quantum-meruit-as-implied-price setting); The abandoned-contract-by-plaintiff: the party abandoning mid-course recovers the value of the benefit conferred (the enrichment measured, subject to the abandonment's consequences); The divisibility rule: the completed-divisible-parts' payment (the indivisible-whole contract's all-or-nothing problem); The measure: the reasonable value of the work-and-materials — the market measure of the benefit conferred, not the contract's price stricto sensu (the price as the evidence, the value as the base).