The doctrine of unjust enrichment implies equity: no one should unjustly enrich himself at the expense of another. In other words, people have a right to be paid for work they do even the absence of an explicit contract.

To recover under quantum meruit, these elements must be present: 1) valuable services or material were furnished; 2) one person sought to be charged and 3) accepted the services and materials 4) under circumstances that the plaintiff expected the person who sought to be charged to pay.