aids a court in determining whether or not an implied contract exists. Two classes of implied contracts exist รน implied in law and implied in fact.
Implied in law-contracts (quasi-contracts) describe situations wherein the law enforces a certain relationship or obligation between parties, even though no agreement between the parties exists. Implied in law-contracts seldom occur in relation to hospitality industry activities. The example of an implied in law contract below involves a health care provider:
Assume that a patient telephones a pharmacist for a prescription medication refill, and tells the pharmacist at the time of the call that, as the patient currently has no transport, a few days will elapse before the patient comes to the pharmacy to collect the medicine. Assume further that, upon examination of the prescription, the pharmacist realizes that the delay may cause serious harm to the patient. To preclude any harm to the patient's health, the pharmacist engages a courier service to deliver the medication to the patient. The pharmacist pays the courier for the delivery service, and adds the courier's fee to the patient's statement. If the patient refuses to pay the delivery fee, the pharmacist may claim the existence of an implied in law contract in seeking legal remedy.
Implied in fact-contracts are actual contracts for situations where the evidence of an agreement is the behavior (as opposed to words) of either party with respect to one another. Courts tend to treat implied in fact-contracts as express contracts. As is true of implied in law-contracts, implied in fact-contracts seldom occur in the hospitality industry. To illustrate how an implied in fact contract occurs, however, consider again the case cited above of the patient and the pharmacist.
Assume that the patient pays for the courier's fee to the pharmacist without objection, and that thereafter, the pharmacist uses a courier service for th...