41 So. 497 | Miss. | 1906
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the court.
We think this case was correctly decided on the facts, and would affirm it without any opinion were it not that there is involved the question as to whether or not a minor may make false representations as to his age, thereby inducing a contract with another person and accepting the benefits to be obtained under the contract, and afterwards escape liability by proving that he was not of age at the time of making the contract. The case of Ostrander v. Quin, 84 Miss., 230 (36 South. Rep., 257), comes very near deciding this question; but, inasmuch as there is some
Perhaps there is no subject in the law that has received more elaborate discussion, or wherein there is more hopeless conflict of authority, than the subject now presented for decision by this court. It may be stated that the great weight of earlier authorities on this subject hold that a minor cannot be held liable on his contract, but the tendency of all modern text-books and decisions is in favor of holding a minor responsible under his contract, where he deliberately makes a false representation as to his age, and in this way induces another to contract with him and accepts the benefits of the contract. 'Whatever may be the weight of earlier authorities on this subject, common justice outweighs the unsatisfactory distinctions attempted to be set us as
If a minor is to be held liable for his fraud, and. his property 'is to be taken to compensate in damages a person who has suffered damage by the minor’s deceit, we fail to understand how it could be made any easier on the minor for this to be done
The chancellor in this case decreed a foreclosure of the deed in trust, with a decree over against the minor for any balance that remained due after the sale of the property if the property did
Affirmed.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring opinion.
delivered the following concurring opinion.
Recoiling from the multitude of undistinguishable distinctions in the books, I take the law to comport with what is plainly right. Infants are shielded from their own improvidence, and their contracts, as to them, are of no force except for necessaries. But when a minor, whose appearance justifies belief in such statement, induced a contract which is reasonable, by false assurances that he is of the age of majority, he should be, and is, estopped to repudiate it, and should be, and is, compelled to carry it out, or to fully restore the status quo by returning what he got and making compensation if he has wasted it.