Restitution in the breach of contract context

1. Restitution in the breach of contract context Was there a substantial breach? Yes No Did P confer a benefit on D? Yes No Is it unjust to let D retain the benefit? Yes No P gets the reasonable value of the benefit conferred No restitution recovery

2. Substantial Breach Criteria • Was the breach "willful" (i.e, particularly reprehensible)? Finding that the breach was "willful" counts in favor of regarding it as substantial. • (2) To what extent did the breacher perform his or her contractual duties? The more work left to be done, the more that counts in favor of finding a substantial breach. • (3) To what extent would awarding expectation damages adequately compensate the non-breacher? The more adequate the expectation award, the more that counts against finding a substantial breach (equivalently, in favor of finding substantial performance). • (4) Would it inadequately compensate THE BREACHER to force the breacher to sue in restitution? If so, that weighs AGAINST finding a substantial breach.

3. Measuring the benefit conferred Market value: Determined by how much people generally are willing to pay. Value to an individual: Determined (at least in some cases) by how much that person is willing to pay--this may be more or less than the market value Actual cost of providing the good or service: Example: book dealer obtains a rare book for $50. The dealer sells the book for its market value of $100. The cost of providing the good is $50. Average cost to the reasonable seller: The average cost of the rare book to a bookdealer might be more or less than the actual cost to some particular dealer. The average cost might be $75. A particular dealer might pay more or less. Expected versus actual benefit:P We can use the above measures to measure either the actual or expected benefit.