When is restitutionary recovery available and how is it measured?

• A. When the defendant is unjustly enriched; measured by the contract price.
• B. When the defendant is unjustly enriched, the plaintiff may recover the benefit conferred, measured by the reasonable value of obtaining that benefit from another source or the increase in the defendant's wealth.
• C. Only when there is a contract for restitution.
• D. Restitution is never available.

Answer: (B)

Restitutionary recovery operates to prevent unjust enrichment when someone has gained a benefit at another’s expense, even without a contract obligating payment. The focus is on disgorging the benefits already conferred, not on enforcing a contract.

The measurement looks at the value of the benefit the plaintiff conferred. This can be the reasonable value of obtaining that benefit from another source, or equivalently the increase in the defendant’s wealth resulting from the enrichment. In other words, you don’t recover the contract price; you recover the value of what the plaintiff supplied or the defendant’s net gain from the enrichment.

So the best answer states that recovery occurs for unjust enrichment and is measured by the reasonable value of the benefit or the wealth increase to the defendant, not by the contract price. Restitution is not limited to situations with a contract, and it is not unavailable.