Civil Model Jury Charge 4.10 E. EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONTRACT BILATERAL
CONTRACTS
A contract may be expressed or implied
or may be a mixture of the two. An
express contract is one in which the parties have shown their agreement by
words. Express contracts include those
in which the parties have orally stated the terms to each other or have placed
the terms in writing.
An implied
contract is one in which the parties show their agreement by conduct. For example, if someone provides services to
another under circumstances that do not support the idea that they were donated
or free, the law implies an obligation to pay the reasonable value of services.
Thus, an
implied contract is an agreement inferred from the parties’ conduct or from the
circumstances surrounding their relationship.
In other words, a defendant may be obligated to pay for services
rendered for defendant by plaintiff if the circumstances are such that
plaintiff reasonably expected defendant to compensate plaintiff and if a
reasonable person in defendant’s position would know that plaintiff was
performing the services expecting that defendant would pay for them.[1]
