In the former article we told our readers that there were some persons
who could not make contracts, and among these were INFANTS or MINORS.
In most of the States a person, male or female, is a minor until he or
she is twenty-one years old. In some of the States, among them
Illinois, a female ceases to be a minor at eighteen years of age.
By the Roman law a minor did not reach his majority until the end of
his twenty-fourth year, and this rule has been adopted in France,
Spain, Holland, and some parts of Germany. The French law, though, has
been changed, with one noteworthy exception. A woman cannot make a
contract relating to her marriage without the consent of her parents
until she is twenty-five. Among the Greeks and early Romans women
never passed beyond the period of minority, but were always subject to
the guardianship of their parents until they were married.
MARRIED WOMEN are another class of persons who cannot make every kind
of a contract like a man. Once a married woman had but very little
power to make contracts. However great might have been her wealth
before marriage, as soon as she entered into this blissful state the
law kindly relieved her of all except her real estate, giving it to
her husband. On the other hand, he was obliged to pay her bills,
which was one of his great pleasures, especially if she was a constant
traveller to the silk and diamond stores. She could still keep her
real estate in her own name, but that was about all. Her husband took
everything else; he could claim her pocket-book, if he pleased, and
was obliged to support her in sickness or health, in sweetness or in
any other "ness."
The law has been greatly changed in all civilised countries in this
regard, and to-day in most States she can make almost any kind of a
contract. In some States, however, it is even now said that she cannot
agree to pay the debt of another, but this is, perhaps, the only limit
on her power to contract. She can engage in business, buy and sell,
transfer notes, make contracts relating to the sale and leasing of her
real estate, insure it, build houses, and do a thousand other things
quite as freely as if there were no husband around. The most of these
changes widening her authority to make contracts have come within the
last fifty years. Of course, unmarried women can make contracts like
men, and many of them know it.
Another class who cannot make contracts are DRUNKEN PERSONS. Once the
law regarded a drunken man as fully responsible for his acts, and if
he made a contract he was obliged to execute or fulfil it. He could
not shield himself by saying he did not know what he was doing at the
time. The court sternly frowned on him and said: "No matter what was
your condition at the time of making it, you must carry it out." This
was the penalty for his misdeed. It may be the courts thought that by
requiring him to fulfil his contracts he would be more careful and
restrain his appetite. Whatever the courts may have thought, they have
changed their opinions regarding his liability for his contracts made
under such conditions. Now they hold that he need not carry them out
if he desires to escape from them. There is, however, one exception
to this rule. If he has given a note in the ordinary form, and this
has been taken by a third person in good faith who did not know of the
maker's condition at the time of making it, he must pay. But, we
repeat, the third person must act in good faith in taking it, for if
he knew that the maker was drunk at that time he cannot require him to
pay any more than the person to whom it was first given.
One other class may be briefly mentioned--the INSANE. They are
regarded in the law quite the same as minors. For their own protection
the law does not hold them liable on any contracts except those for
necessaries. These are binding for the same reasons as the contracts
of minors, in order that they may be able to get such things as they
need for their health and comfort. For if the law were otherwise,
then, of course, merchants would be afraid to sell to them. But as
merchants can now safely sell to them whatever they truly need in the
way of clothing, food, etc., to make themselves comfortable, so, on
the other hand, the insane, like minors, must pay for these things,
and it is right that they should.