Can You Get Paid For Your Services When You Didn't Have A Contract?
What if you performed services for someone who refuses to pay you, and when you file suit to collect, they claim they don’t have to pay because there was never a contract between you? You’d be surprised how often this happens. If you can prove the existence of a contract, the Court will award you damages for breach of contract. If, however, you can’t prove the existence of a contract, all is not lost. Under the doctrine of quantum meruit, you can still get paid for the value of the services you provided.
In order to win a breach of contract claim, there are 3 things you have to prove.
(1) the existence of a contract
(2) the breach of an obligation under the contract
(3) damages caused by the breach.
As to the first issue, it might sound strange that 2 people can’t agree on whether a contract existed, but there have been a lot of lawsuits over that single question. How to prove the existence of a contract is a subject for another day. This article’s focus is instead on how to collect for your services when you can’t prove a contract existed.
The first thing you have to prove under a quantum meruit claim is that you provided a service or materials (or both) to the other party. Next, you must prove that the other party accepted your services or the materials. And last, you have to show that the person you provided services or materials to knew or should have known that you expected to be compensated. Assuming you can prove these elements, the Court will award you the reasonable value of the services or materials provided.
