Class notes
Law of Persons - Chapter 4
- Course
- PSR 110 (PSR110)
- Institution
- University Of Pretoria (UP)
Definitions, explanations and case law are all detailed and in easy terms to understand.
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LAW OF PERSONS:CHAPTER 4Effect of Age on Status
Terms
Infans
- A person below the age of 7 years
Minor
- A person from the age 7 years to just before his /her 18th birthday
Major
- A person from the age of 18 years
Status
- The sum total of a person’s capacities
o Legal capacity
o Capacity to act
o Capacity to litigate
Legal capacity
- Capacity that vests individual with legal subjectivity and enables him or her to hold offices
o E.G.
▪ Owner
▪ Contracting party
▪ Spouse
▪ Testator
Capacity to act
- Capacity to enter into legal transaction
o E.G.
▪ Conclude juristic acts
Capacity to litigate
- Capacity that enables person to act as a party in a private-law suit
Juristic act
- Human act to which the law attaches consequences
o E.G.
▪ Agreements
• Contracts
o The consequences are the performances due in terms of the agreement
Void contract
- A contract which, in the eyes of the law, never came into existence
- The parties must give back what they have received and restore the position to what it had been before they
entered into the contract
Guardian
- Appointed by the High court
, Effect of different ages on status
Age
- One of the most important factors influencing a person’s status
- Different age limits influence on person’s status in different areas of the law
- Influence of age is unique in that it has a continued effect on a person’s status
o Other factors that have an influence on status (mental disability/ drunkenness)
▪ Have a one off effect because they influence the person’s status for the duration of the
relevant condition
Classifisation of persons according to age
- Age affects a person’s status.
- A person should have capacity to act only if they are in possession of a reasonable will and judgement
o Person must comprehend nature, extent and consequences of their acts before the law can confer
capacity to act on them
o A distinction must be made between intellectual ability and the ability to judge
▪ judge
• appreciate properly the consequences of one’s conduct
o something for which a person needs a certain degree of maturity and
experience
- Whether or not a minor possess the necessary judgment to manage their affair is a question of fact
o It would be impractical and lead to legal uncertainty if one would have to judge everyone’s
intellectual ability and the ability to judge
▪ Therefore, Children’s Act 38 of 2005 in section 17 states that everyone reaches majority
when 18
- Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992
o Every birth must be registered and every birth certificate that is issued is prima facie evidence of the
details set out it in
▪ If details are not available other aids must be used
Prima facie • E.G.
Based on the first o Teeth of the person concerned could be examined
impression; o Use X-rays to examine hardening of the person’s bones to establish to what
accepted as extent ossification/ hardening has taken place
correct until ▪ Must also try establish the exact moment a person has reached a certain age – if it is to their
proved advantage
otherwise. • Majority is reach immediately after midnight on the day on which such a person’s
eighteenth birthday dawns
- Boezaart explains the reason for this in terms of the capacity to act
o This is the capacity to conclude juristic acts
o Juristic acts are dependent on a person’s expression of will
▪ At age of 10
• Person can consent to his/her own adoption
▪ At age 14
• Witness a will
▪ At age of 16
• Execute a will
▪ Age of puberty
• Enter into marriage with consent
- Constitution in section 28
o Protects children’s rights
o Subsection 2 provides that the child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter
concerning the child.
o Children’s Act recognises & expands the children’s rights provided for in the Constitution.
, Infans Minor Major
0 – under 7 7 – under 18 18 -
Legal capacity Limited Limited Full
Capacity to act No capacity to act alone Limited Full
Capacity to litigate No capacity to litigate Limited Full
alone
Infans
Effect on legal capacity
- Infans has limited legal capacity
o The infans is a legal subject from birth with judicial competencies, subjective rights and legal
obligations
▪ Can have obligations
• If inherit sum of money – they have to pay tax
o Infans can be the owner of property
▪ Can have all the rights and obligations that are related to such ownership
• But cannot hold the office of spouse or testator
o Therefore does not have the rights and obligations related to these offices
- Infans has no (personal) capacity to act
- Juristic acts
o Infans cannot conclude any juristic act on their own
o An infans cannot even conclude a juristic act to which their parent or guardian has given consent
▪ The law attaches no consequences to the expression of will of infans.
▪ Therefore all transactions such as buy ice cream or sweets should be void
• But law does not concern themselves with such trivialities
- Cannot conclude an agreement even with assistance of parent/ guardian
o Parent/ guardian must act from them on their behalf
- Cannot accept a gift
o Parent/ guardian/ Master of High Court must accept it on their behalf
o No specific form of acceptance is prescribed by which the parent/ guardian accepts the gift
▪ Acceptance can occur tacitly and be deduced for a person’s behaviour
- Parent/ guardian
o If not married at time
▪ Father will only automatically acquire parental responsibilities and rights
o If both parents are deceased
▪ The person’s guardian will be the bearer of parental responsibilities and rights
o If no guardian has been appointed
▪ High court (upper guardian) can act on behalf of the infans
- Behalf of the infans
o A legal bond or obligation exists between the infans and the other party
▪ not between the parent/ guardian and the other party
o Rights & obligations that arise from the agreement are those of the infans
▪ the agreement is enforceable by and against the infans
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