Commerce Partnership 8098 Limited Partnership v. Equity Contracting Co.

Commerce Partnership (defendant) hired a general contractor to improve its office building, and the general contractor hired Equity Contracting (plaintiff) to do the actual work. After the general contractor went bankrupt, Equity sued Commerce directly under an unjust-enrichment theory; at trial, Commerce tried to show it had already paid subcontractors and the general contractor amounts totaling nearly $290,000 — more than the $257,000 contract price — but the trial court excluded that evidence as irrelevant and entered judgment for Equity.