A Treatise on the Law of Quasi-contracts |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbott action brought action for money allowed to recover amount assumpsit benefit bill breach of contract circumstances claim compelled compensation condition count for money court of equity creditor damages debt debtor decision default defendant defendant's delivering the opinion demand doctrine duty endorsement entitled to recover existence failure of consideration held illegal implied in law imposed intention intestate judgment jury Justice land liability Lord Mansfield ment mistake of law money so paid National Bank obligation oral contract owner paid under mistake pari delicto party payment person plaintiff sought possession principle promise purchase quasi-contract question reason received recover money paid recover the money recovered back recovery of money refused to perform remedy right to recover semble services rendered sold sought to recover statute of frauds statute of limitations submitted supposed surety thereof tiff tion tort feasor tract true unjust enrichment waive
Popular passages
Page 163 - But where, besides the crime, property is acquired which benefits the testator, there an action for the value of the property shall survive against the executor. As for instance, the executor shall not be chargeable for the injury done by his testator in cutting down another man's trees, but for the benefit arising to his testator for the value or sale of the trees he shall. So far as- the tort itself goes, an executor shall not be liable; and therefore it is, that all public and all private crimes...
Page 89 - As to the certainty of the law mentioned by Mr. Dunning, it would be very hard upon the profession if the law was so certain that everybody knew it : the misfortune is, that it is so uncertain that it costs much money to know what it is, even in the last resort.
Page 110 - VVhere facts are undisputed, and but one inference can be drawn from them the question of probable cause is one of law, for the court.
Page 7 - Implied are such as reason and justice dictate, and which therefore the law presumes, that every man undertakes to perform. As, if I employ a person to do any business for me, or perform any work ; the law implies that I undertook, or contracted, to pay him as much as his labor deserves. If I take up wares from a tradesman, without any agreement of price, the law concludes, that I contracted to pay their real value.
Page 380 - It appears to me, speaking with all deference to other opinions, that the denial of all compensation to such a bona fide purchaser in such a case, where he has manifestly added to the permanent value of an estate by his meliorations and improvements, without the slightest suspicion of any infirmity in his own title, is contrary to the first principles of equity.
Page 11 - Is usurpation for the court to hold, as a matter of law, that there is a contract and a promise, when all the evidence in the case shows that there was not a contract, nor the semblance of one. It is doubtless a legal fiction, invented and used for the sake of the remedy. If It was originally usurpation, certainly it has now become very inveterate, and firmly fixed in the body of the law.
Page 380 - ... possessor, for the rents and profits, it is the constant habit of courts of equity to allow such possessor (as defendant) to deduct therefrom the full amount of all the meliorations and improvements which he has beneficially made upon the estate ; and, thus to recoup them from the rents and profits.
Page 319 - Ordinarily, where services are rendered and voluntarily accepted, the law will imply a promise upon the part of the recipient to pay for them; but where services are rendered by members of a family...
Page 433 - The ultimate fact, of which that was an ingredient in the particular case, was the moral duress not justified by law. When such duress is exerted under circumstances sufficient to influence the apprehensions and conduct of a prudent business man, payment of money wrongfully induced thereby ought not to be regarded as voluntary. But the circumstances of the case are always to be taken into consideration. When the duress has been exerted by one clothed with official authority, or exercising a public...
Page 182 - Morris had in their possession $12,500, either in their own right, or as trustees for others interested in the lottery, no matter which, the legal right to this sum was in them, the defendant claimed and received it by false and fraudulent pretences, as morally criminal as by larceny, forgery, or perjury ; and the only question before us is, whether he can retain it by any principle or rule of law.