Disaffirming a Contract Signed By a Minor

The law states that minors do not have contractual capacity. Minors are defined by being under the age of majority. The age of majority varies from state to state and is usually 18,19, or 21. This gives adults who have signed contracts before the age of minority the ability to disaffirm or refuse to be bound by a contract. However, emancipated minors may be bound by their contracts. The ratification of a contract after the age of majority binds the person to that contract and will no longer allow them to disaffirm the contract. Court approved, insurance, work-related, reality and banking contracts cannot be disaffirmed.

If a person gives there real age when signing a contract, I believe that the companies should be liable for anything disaffirmations because they were aware of what could happen. I think that the fact that disaffirmation is still allowed even if the person lied about their age is a grey area ethically. A company should be responsible for getting proper proof of age when they are setting up a contract with someone. Therefore, they have not covered well enough for themselves and should still be held liable.

Minors have a reasonable length of time after achieving their majority to disaffirm contracts.  I think that within 5 years would be reasonable for a contract that is known about. If someone decided to seek money for a contract at a later time that the person was unaware of or didn’t remember having, I believe that they should be able to disaffirm it when they find out about it, no matter how many years later that is.

Ethically, I don’t believe that it’s right if a child lies about their age and then is still able to disaffirm a contract without consequences. However, we call them minors for a reason. These are young people who haven’t really gotten a chance to learn right from wrong and what types of contracts they should enter and the obligations that come with them. I think that the government protecting our minors from being contractually obligated to a contract agreed to before the age of majority is very ethical. We cannot allow our youth to be taken advantage of.