Describe legal capacity and discuss how it applies to minors entering into and cancelling contracts

Answer 1

Capacity is the legal ability to enter into a contract. Two groups of people usually lack legal capacity: minors and those with a mental impairment. Because a minor lacks legal capacity, he or she can only create a voidable contract. This means that when a minor enters into a contract, he or she generally may choose between enforcing the agreement or negating it. A minor who wishes to escape from a contract generally may disaffirm it; that is, he may notify the other party that he refuses to be bound by the agreement. A minor who disaffirms a contract must return the consideration he has received, to the extent he is able. A minor may disaffirm a contract anytime before he or she reaches age 18 . An exception to this is the concept of "necessaries." A necessary is something essential to a minor's life and welfare. Food, clothing, housing, and medical care are necessaries. In some circumstances, courts have considered less essential items, like legal advice, automobiles, and tuition, to be necessaries. On a contract for necessaries, a minor must pay for the value of the benefit received. In other words, the minor may still disaffirm the contract and return whatever is unused. But he is liable to pay for whatever benefit he obtained from the goods while he had them.