R2d § 14
Infants
Unless a statute provides otherwise, a natural person has the capacity to incur only voidable contractual duties until the beginning of the day before the person's eighteenth birthday.
Professor's notes
Element: unless a statute provides otherwise, a natural person has the capacity to incur only voidable contractual duties until the beginning of the day before the person's eighteenth birthday.
Webster St. Partnership v. Sheridan operationalizes: minor lessees disaffirmed the lease; landlord could not enforce. Court also addressed restitution and "necessaries."
Common misunderstanding: students think the minor must return what was received. The disaffirmance rule generally lets the minor recover paid amounts even without full restitution; the necessaries exception (food, shelter, medical) reaches only the reasonable value, not the contract price. This is a chok-style bright-line rule: under 18, no contractual capacity: chosen for administrability over case-by-case maturity assessment.
Cases that operationalize this rule
Text
R2d § 14. Infants.
Unless a statute provides otherwise, a natural person has the capacity to incur only voidable contractual duties until the beginning of the day before the person’s eighteenth birthday.