Also known as: ages of capacity · capacity age
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An age threshold, usually set by statute at eighteen, at which a person gains legal capacity to perform specified acts such as executing a will or making a contract. A person below this age who has not been emancipated for the purpose in question is a minor lacking capacity for those acts. A purported will by such a minor is void.
Andre Antoine, age seventeen, types and signs a document directing his brokerage accounts to his girlfriend upon his death. He has not been emancipated. The document is treated as having no legal effect because Andre has not reached the age of capacity for will-making. His accounts pass instead to his parents under intestacy rules.
Adrian Aguilar, age fifteen and living with his parents while attending high school, delivers his prize cow and registration papers to his mentor as a gift. No emancipation order exists. Adrian later seeks to recover the cow. The transfer is voidable at his election because he has not reached the age of capacity for making a gift.
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The document is void because the signer has not reached the age of capacity for will-making and is therefore a minor lacking testamentary capacity. It has no legal effect regardless of formalities or clarity of intent.
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No. Marriage alone does not alter minority status for testamentary purposes unless a statute expressly grants will-making capacity to married minors. Absent such a statute the person remains a minor for that purpose.
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A court-ordered emancipation removes minor status for the specific purpose if the order addresses testamentary capacity. Without that determination the person remains a minor even if living independently in other respects.
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The rule treats a minor's will as void from the outset to protect against irrevocable post-death dispositions. A minor's inter vivos gift is merely voidable and subject to later ratification or disaffirmance.
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