Also known as: voidable contractual duty · voidable duties · voidable contract · avoidable duties
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Contractual obligations that a party lacking full legal capacity may elect to avoid by disaffirmance or to make fully binding by ratification. Capacity to incur such duties may be partial and may turn on the nature of the transaction or surrounding circumstances.
Veronica Villanueva, age fifteen, signed a multi-year exclusive merchandising agreement with a national retailer granting rights to her name and image. After one year she elected to disaffirm. The retailer could not enforce ongoing duties because her assent created only voidable contractual duties.
Virgil Volpe, visibly intoxicated at a reception, signed a five-year remote-monitoring agreement with a therapeutics company while on morphine. The company had reason to know of his condition. Virgil later avoided the duties because intoxication rendered them only voidable.
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Vivian Velez, seventeen, signed an income-share agreement for an online coding program without parental co-signature. She later sought to disaffirm before turning eighteen. The bootcamp could not enforce the multi-year payment obligation because her duties remained only voidable.
Vanessa Vega, under partial guardianship for financial matters, negotiated and signed a fifteen-year wind-turbine lease after asking detailed questions. Her guardian later repudiated. The lessor could not enforce the lease because mental illness rendered the duties only voidable.
Victor Vargas entered a contract while lacking capacity. After reaching majority he performed for two weeks and accepted benefits. His conduct constituted ratification that extinguished the power of avoidance and made the duties fully binding.
Veronica Varela, under guardianship for litigation decisions, signed a contingency-fee agreement with an attorney without guardian involvement. The guardian objected. The firm could not enforce the agreement because Veronica lacked capacity to incur even voidable contractual duties in that sphere.
No. A minor's performance or receipt of benefits does not automatically eliminate the power of disaffirmance. The duties remain voidable at the minor's election unless ratification occurs after reaching majority.
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Duties are voidable when the other party has reason to know the intoxicated person could not understand the transaction or could not act reasonably in relation to it. Visible signs such as slurred speech or drowsiness can supply that reason to know.
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Capacity may be partial. If the guardianship covers only personal affairs, the ward retains capacity to incur voidable duties on financial matters outside the guardianship's scope, allowing enforcement of those contracts.
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The ward has no capacity at all to incur contractual duties concerning the protected property. Agreements made without the guardian are void rather than merely voidable.
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No. When a guardian holds exclusive authority over litigation and settlement, the ward lacks capacity to incur even voidable duties in that area. The agreement is unenforceable over the guardian's objection.
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…from the statement of the rule in Restatement 2d: Contracts (Tent, drafts 1-7, 1973) § 18C (1) (a): “A person incurs only voidable contractual duties by entering into a transaction if by reason of mental illness or defect... he is unable to understand in a reasonable manner the nature and consequences of the transaction.” Even where…