Can a contractor who contracts for the construction of a 200-foot tunnel run the length of the tunnel, but runs five tunnels instead, can he recover on the contract or on the quantum meruit?

Another illustration of the same principle is found in Lakin v. Nuttall, 1879 CanLII 18 (SCC), 3 S.C.R. 685. In that case the plaintiff was employed to run a tunnel 200 feet long on the defendant’s property, for the purpose of testing the presence of a formation of anthracite coal. Instead of running one tunnel 200 feet long, he ran five tunnels, the aggregate length of which was 204 feet. It was held he could not recover, either on the contract or on a quantum meruit. In his judgment, at p. 697, Mr. Justice Taschereau said: The defendants contracted for one tunnel of two hundred feet in length; the plaintiff, for a certain consideration, bound himself to run that tunnel; he cannot now, not having performed his contract, claim the contract price. His right to sue on the contract depended on his performance of it. On the quantum meruit, the plaintiff’s action must also fail. What he did was under a contract, and that contract he did not perform.