Resurgence of Unjust Enrichment Claims: Pleading, Proof, Defenses; Measure of Recovery, Innocent Defendants

Description

Unjust enrichment is not a law school relic. Unjust enrichment claims are complex and require extensive and specific proof. They can produce gigantic verdicts. Not long ago, Harvard Law Review devoted significant space (Vol. 133, No. 6) to unjust enrichment and "its recent resurgence." The 2023 edition of The Comprehensive Guide to Economic Damages has three chapters on it, and in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a $140 million jury award for unjust enrichment and a circuit split over the appropriate measure of damages.

Unjust enrichment may be most useful against third parties. Damages are the value of the benefit conferred/received, which can exceed actual damage to the plaintiff and allow the plaintiff to avoid disclosing sensitive information since the focus is on the defendant. Plaintiffs usually do not need to prove that the defendant was culpable. Post-closing suits against innocent shareholders or corporate affiliates can proceed based on misrepresentations of others or against co-victims of Ponzi schemes in certain situations.

Unjust enrichment damages can be huge if the benefit the plaintiff provided is kneaded into the defendant's business, such as construction materials; theft or misuse of intellectual property, trade secrets, business opportunities, and the like; business divorces; breach of fiduciary duty cases; property division in divorces; elder abuse; and more.

Listen as this experienced panel discusses the risks and rewards of properly pleading and proving or defending unjust enrichment.