Quantum Meruit

Quantum meruit — as much as he has earned — is the restitutionary basis on which work is valued when no enforceable price exists: contract formed but terms incomplete, contract void, or work instructed outside any contract at all.

Where it sits: Classic basis in Cutter v Powell (1795); modern treatment in Costain v Haswell and MW High Tech v Vivienne Westwood. The measure is the work\'s value, not the parties\' hopes.

Quantum meruit is what happens when the commercial scaffolding fails. Letters of intent that outrun their limits, contracts never executed despite months of performance, work done on the promise of a price never agreed — the law will not let the employer keep the work for nothing, so it values it. The valuation is fair market value of the work done, which usually means expert measurement, contemporaneous records, and an argument about contribution.

The commercial lesson is preventive: the doctrine exists precisely to rescue parties from informality, and it prices the rescue unpredictably. A contract, any contract, is cheaper than a quantum meruit claim.

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