Quasi Contracts & Time, Place & Manner of Performance of Contracts | Legal Reasoning for CLAT PDF Download

Quasi Contracts

‘Quasi Contracts’ are so called because the obligations associated with such transactions could neither be referred as tortious nor contractual, but are still recognised as enforceable, like contracts, in Courts. According to Dr. Jenks, Quasi-contract is “a situation in which law imposes upon one person, on grounds of natural justice, an obligation similar to that which arises from a true contract, although no contract, express or implied, has in fact been entered into by them.”

Examples-

• X Supplies goods to his customer Y who receives and consumes them. Y is bound to pay the price. Y’s acceptance of the goods constitutes an implied promise to pay. This kind of contract is called a tacit contract. In this very illustration, if the goods are delivered by a servant of X to Z, mistaking Z for Y, then Z will be bound to pay compensation to X for their value. This is ‘Quasi-Contract.’

Time, Place And Manner of Performance of Contracts

The rules laid down regarding the time, place and manner of performance are summed up hereunder:

• Where the time for performance has been specified and the promisor has undertaken to perform it without application by the promisee, the promisor must perform on the day fixed during the usual business hours and at the place at which the promise ought to be performed.

Examples

• A promises to deliver goods to B at his warehouse on 15th July, 1999. A offers the goods at B’s warehouse but after the usual hours for closing it. The performance of A is not valid.
• But, where the time of performance is not specified, and the promisor agreed to perform without a demand from the promisee, the performance must be made within a reasonable time. What a reasonable time is, in each particular case, a question of fact.
• Where a promise is to be performed on a certain day, and the promisor has not undertaken to perform it without application by the promisee, the promisee must apply for performance at a proper place and within the usual business hours. What is a proper time and place is, in each particular case, a question of fact.
• When a promise is to be performed without application by the promisee and no place is fixed for its performance, the promisor must apply to the promisee to appoint a reasonable place for the performance of the promise, and perform it at such place.