A plaintiff sued for contract damages, unjust enrichment, and what is called a quasi-contract concerning services he provided to a company. The company argued the parties had a fully integrated independent contractor agreement that precluded the claims. The claim was allowed to continue despite the agreement.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT… If there is a contract, claims for damages outside the contract for activities that are the subject of the contract are disallowed. Only the damages called for by the contract are allowed. Here, because the contract entered into specifically said that it was effective as of a specific date, the claims for unjust enrichment and quasi-contract were allowed to continue insofar as they were for services provided before the effective date of the contract. If the parties intended to cover prior work, they should have had the contract say it, which would mean that these other causes of damages would have been disallowed.
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