Suing for Freebies

What is the name of your state? MD

Here is the basic premise without getting into much detail:

There is a contract between Jim & Bob. Bob agrees to do X in the contract. Bob ends up doing X and Y.

Bob does Y for free as an extra and there is no contract for it. Y turns out to have been done negligently and now Jim is seeking damages.

IS there any case law on this in MD or anywhere on the US? Do I have a case... this is NOT personal injury.. this is more of a contract argument... can I sue for damages caused by work done for free (which I did not ask for in the original contract, nor did I ask for verbally - it was given to me freely)

aceterp said:

What is the name of your state? MD

Here is the basic premise without getting into much detail:

There is a contract between Jim & Bob. Bob agrees to do X in the contract. Bob ends up doing X and Y.

Bob does Y for free as an extra and there is no contract for it. Y turns out to have been done negligently and now Jim is seeking damages.

IS there any case law on this in MD or anywhere on the US? Do I have a case... this is NOT personal injury.. this is more of a contract argument... can I sue for damages caused by work done for free (which I did not ask for in the original contract, nor did I ask for verbally - it was given to me freely)

Click to expand...

Generally, if a person caused you provable damage due to their negligence, then you can recover from them.

aceterp said:

What is the name of your state? MD

Here is the basic premise without getting into much detail:

There is a contract between Jim & Bob. Bob agrees to do X in the contract. Bob ends up doing X and Y.

Bob does Y for free as an extra and there is no contract for it. Y turns out to have been done negligently and now Jim is seeking damages.

IS there any case law on this in MD or anywhere on the US? Do I have a case... this is NOT personal injury.. this is more of a contract argument... can I sue for damages caused by work done for free (which I did not ask for in the original contract, nor did I ask for verbally - it was given to me freely)

Click to expand...

Legally, there are two theories: contract and negligence.

Under a contract theory, if the work performed was not part of the contract, then you're out of luck.

Under negligence, you may have a shot, albeit a small one. Negligence requires four elements to be met, typically called "duty, breach, causation & damages". Your question, as posed, has some problems satisfying the first two requirements. Specifically, what (legal) duty does someone performing "non-requested work for free" have? In most circles, that sort of thing is called a "gift". If I give you a car for Xmas and that car goes off a bridge during a storm because the tires were bald, I'm not negligent because I had no duty to give you a car with non-bald tires. Here, you have a similar issue.

Where you may be able to overcome it is if the free work being done was of a specialized nature - i.e. electrical, plumbing, or perhaps even general contracting services. You could then make an argument that implicit in the performance of such work is that it will be done non-negligently (given the danger of improper electrical work, or local code requirements for plumbing, etc). But even then, you run into a "breach" problem.

That is, just how good must the free work be? Being free, it's likely going to be an extraordinarily low standard. Therefore, unless the free work done wasn't so poor as to be blatantly ridiculous, you are probably going to have an uphill battle here.

Of course, a lot of this speculation would be unnecessary if you would provide actual facts instead of a hypothetical

You Are Guilty said:

Of course, a lot of this speculation would be unnecessary if you would provide actual facts instead of a hypothetical

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I TOTALLY agree with that!

Ok here is some more detail...

I contracted with "Bob Corp" to provide Bob Corp a portfolio with a listing of costs associated with various 401K plans that the company could offer its employees. I provided those figures accurately. However, I also included figures for the company’s employee payroll deductions, which was not required by the contract, in an effort to provide the company with a better estimate of what its actual costs would be. It turns out my figures for what the employee payroll deductions would be was wrong. Now the company wants to sue my company. But the contract didn’t say I was to provide those figures – so can they really sue me? If so – on what grounds?

aceterp said:

Ok here is some more detail...

I contracted with "Bob Corp" to provide Bob Corp a portfolio with a listing of costs associated with various 401K plans that the company could offer its employees. I provided those figures accurately. However, I also included figures for the company’s employee payroll deductions, which was not required by the contract, in an effort to provide the company with a better estimate of what its actual costs would be. It turns out my figures for what the employee payroll deductions would be was wrong. Now the company wants to sue my company. But the contract didn’t say I was to provide those figures – so can they really sue me? If so – on what grounds?

Click to expand...

Yes, they can sue you (anyone can sue anyone at any time for anything.) On what grounds? I don't know...they'd have to prove a lot of things that, from your post, don't seem to be there. What are their damages? Did your proposal state that the information was only estimates?

Negligence, possibly a breach of contract and intentional or negligent misrepresentation. You would also have a quasi-contractual remedy, depending on the facts.

While the scenario is still fairly non-specific, there is clearly enough going on to cause you problems. Call your insurance company.

Info edit:
I just read zinger's response and agree more is needed. However, I bet Bob Corp will say they were induced to contract based on the figures used in the employees' deductions. Obviously any of the torts would need damages of some sort to cause a suit and I'm just supposing they are there or we wouldn't even be hearing from the OP. If not, I bet there can be a fraud in the inducement claim in the attempt to make the contract voidable and save Bob Corp some money.

ok a little more detail then...

Bob Copr wants to possibly offer a 401K plan. I work for a consulting firm that was contracted by Bob Corp. The contractual obligation was to provide Bob Corp a list of 401K options.

Within this portfolio I also included a breakdown of employee deductions. I stated that this was just an estimate, as I do not know or have any of Bob Corp's payroll information. I never asked for thier payroll info, nor was it provided - it was just an estimate...

It later turns out that this estimate of employee deductions was... well a bad estimate.

Can Bob Corp sue based on the "estimate of employee breakdowns"?

Bob Corp has already paid me for the contract. Also even though I provided the "extra deductions" info I did not ask for additional compensation. Also I have no connection with the 401K options.. meaning I could care less which option Bob chose.

You say that the estimate was bad, but what are the damages arising from that estimate? DId they choose the wrong 401K plan? Did they lose money?

Also, when providing the estimate, was it explicitly listed as an estimate in the documentation you gave Bob Corp? If it says in writing that it is an estimate and the employer never gave you any payroll information, I would think that it would be negligent on the part of Bob Corp to rely on your figures as gospel.

Yes, they can sue you.
Doesn't sound to me like they have much of a case though...