QUARTO DIE POST. The fourth day inclusive after the return day of the writ¹ is so called. This is the day of appearance given ex gracia curiae.

TO QUASH, practice. To overthrow² or annul³.

2. When proceedings⁴ are clearly irregular and void the courts will quash them, both in civil and criminal cases: for example, when the array is clearly irregular, as if the jurors have been selected by persons not authorized⁵ by law, it will be quashed. 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 3342.

3. In criminal cases, when an indictment⁶ is so defective⁷ that no judgment⁸ can be given upon it, should the defendant⁹ be convicted, the court, upon application, will in general quash it; as if it have no jurisdiction¹⁰ of the offence charged, or when the matter charged is not indictable. 1 Burr. 516, 548; Andr. 226. When the application to quash is made on the part of the defendant, the court generally refuses to quash the indictment when it appears some enormous crime has been committed. Com. Dig. Indictment, H; Wils. 325; 1 Salk. 372; 3 T. R. 621; 6 Mod. 42; 3 Burr. 1841; 5 Mod. 13; Bac. Abr. Indictment, K. When the application is made on the part of the prosecution¹¹, the indictment will be quashed whenever it is defective so that the defendant cannot be convicted, and the prosecution appears to be bona fide. If the prosecution be instituted by the attorney general, he may, in some states, enter a nolle prosequi, which has the same effect. 1 Dougl. 239, 240. The application should be made before plea pleaded; Leach¹², 11; 4 St. Tr. 232; 1 Hale, 35; Fost. 231; and before the defendant's recognizance has been forfeited¹³. 1 Salk. 380. Vide Cassetur Breve.

QUASI. A Latin word in frequent use in the civil law signifying as if, almost. It marks the resemblance, and supposes a little difference between two objects. Dig. b. 11, t. 7, 1. 8, 1. Civilians¹⁴ use the expressions quasi-contractus, quasi-delictum, quasi-possessio quasi-traditio, &c.

QUASI-AFINITY. A term used in the civil law to designate the affinity¹⁵ which exists between two persons, one of whom has been betrothed¹⁶ to the kindred of the other, but who have never been married. For example, my brother is betrothed to Maria, and, afterwards, before marriage he dies, there then exists between Maria and me a quasi-affinity.

2. The history of England furnishes an example of this kind. Catherine of Arragon was betrothed to the brother of Henry VIII. Afterwards Henry married her and, under the pretence¹⁷ of this quasi affinity, he repudiated¹⁸ her, because the marriage was incestuous.

QUASI-CONTRACTUS. A term used in the civil law. A quasi-contract is the act of a person, permitted by law, by which he obligates himself towards another, or by which another binds²⁰ himself to him, without any agreement between them.

2. By article 2272 of the Civil Code of Louisiana, which is translated from article 1371 of the Code Civil, quasi-contracts are defined to be "the lawful²¹ and purely²² voluntary acts of a man, from which there results any obligation whatever to a third person, and sometime a reciprocal obligation between the parties." In contracts, it is the consent of the contracting parties which produces the obligation; in quasi-contracts no consent is required, and the obligation arises from the law or natural equity²³, on the facts of the case. These acts are called quasi-contracts, because, without being contracts, they bind¹⁹ the parties as contracts do.

3. Quasi-contracts may be multiplied almost to infinity²⁴. They are, however, divided into five classes: such "relate to the voluntary and spontaneous management of the affairs of another, without authority; the administration of tutorship; the management of common property; the acquisition of an inheritance; and the payment of a sum of money or other thing by mistake, when nothing was due.

4. - 1. Negotiorum gestio. When a man undertakes of his own accord to manage the affairs of another, the person assuming the agency contracts the tacit engagement to continue it, an& complete it, until the owner shall be in a condition to attend to it himself. The obligation of such a person is, 1st. To act for the benefit of the absentee. 2d. He is commonly answerable for the slightest neglect. 3d. He is bound to render an account of his management. Equity obliges the proprietor²⁵, whose business has been well managed, 1st. To comply with the engagements contracted by the manager in his name. 2d. To indemnify the manager in all the engagements he has contracted. 3d. To reimburse²⁶ him all useful and necessary expenses.

5. - 2. Tutorship or guardianship²⁷, is the second kind of quasi-contracts, there being no agreement between the tutor and minor²⁸.

6. - 3. When a person has the management of a common property owned by himself and others, not as partners, he is bound to account for the profits, and is entitled to be reimbursed²⁹ for the expenses which he has sustained by virtue³⁰ of the quasi-contract which is created by his act, called communio bonorum.

7. - 4. The fourth class is the aditio herreditatis, by which the heir is bound to pay the legatees, who cannot be said to have any contract with him or with the deceased.

8. - 5. Indebiti solutio, or the payment to one of what is not due to him, if made through any mistake in fact, or even in law, entitles him who made the payment to an action against the receiver for repayment³¹, condictio indebiti. This action does not lie, 1. If the sum paid was due ex equitate, or by a natural obligation. 2. If he who made the payment; knew that nothing was due, for qui consulto dat quod non, debebat, proesumitur donare.

9. Each of these quasi-contracts has an affinity with some contract; thus the management of the affairs of another without authority, and tutorship, are compared to a mandate³²; the community of property, to a partnership³³; the acquisition of an inheritance, to a stipulation³⁴; and the payment of a thing which is not due, to a loan.

10. All persons, even infants and persons destitute³⁵ of reason, who are consequently incapable³⁶ of consent may be obliged by the quasi-contract, which results from the act of another, and may also oblige others in their favor; for it is not consent which forms these obligations; they are contracted by the act of another, without any act on our part. The use of reason is indeed required in the person whose act formsthe quasi-contract, but it is not re-quired in the person by whom or in whose favor the obligations which result from it are contracted. For instance, if a person undertakes the business of an infant or a lunatic; this is a quasi-contract, which obliges the infant or the lunatic to the person undertaking³⁷ his affairs, for what he has beneficially expended³⁸, and reciprocally obliges the person to give an account of his administration or management.

11. There is no term in the common law which answers to that of quasi-contract; many quasi-contracts may doubtless be classed among implied contracts; there is, however, a difference between them, which an example will make manifest. In case money should be paid by mistake to a minor, it may be recovered from him by the civil law, because his consent is not necessary to a quasi-contract but by the common law, if it can be recovered, it must be upon an agreement to which the law presumes he has consented, and it is doubtful, upon principle, whether such recovery could be had.

See generally, Just. Inst. b. 3, t. 28 Dig. b. 3, tit. 5; Ayl. Pand. b. 4, tit. 31 1 Bro. Civil Law, 386; Ersk. Pr. Laws of Scotl. b. 3, tit. 3, s. 16; Pardessus, Dr. Com. n. 192, et seq.; Poth. Ob. n. 113, et seq.; Merlin, Rep. Riot Quasi-contract; Menestrier, Lecons Elem. du Droit Civil Romain, liv. 3, tit. 28; Civil Code of Louisiana, b. 3, tit. 5; Code Civil, liv. 3, tit. 4, c. 1.