This chapter addresses when a party lacks legal capacity to enter a binding agreement and why the law protects minors, the intoxicated, and those with serious mental impairment. The disorienting encounter in Pippin’s Palantír offers a useful narrative analogy for compromised judgment and vulnerability.
Doctrinal map
Capacity protects parties whom the law treats as unable to bind themselves: minors (R2d §§ 14, 18), the seriously mentally impaired (R2d § 15), and the severely intoxicated. Contracts entered by such parties are typically voidable, with disaffirmance returning the parties to status quo ante. The necessaries exception holds the protected party liable for the reasonable value (not the contract price) of necessaries. Webster Street Partnership v. Sheridan applies the framework to a minor’s lease.
Key Sources
Key Rules
- R2d § 12: No capacity if infant, mentally ill, or intoxicated
- R2d § 14: Infants' contracts voidable
- R2d § 15: Mental illness or defect