Toyin Omoniyi Another requirement of a valid contract is legal capacity.
LEGAL CAPACITY
It is not everybody that has the legal capacity to enter into a contract. Even if all the requirements of a valid contract are present, if one of the parties to the contract does not have legal capacity, the agreement will be unenforceable.
People who do not have legal capacity to enter into a contract are.
· Drunks – We all know that a drunk person is not in full control of his senses and unaware of what he is doing so if such a person enters into an agreement and the other person knows that he is drunk, the agreement will be voidable.
This means that if the drunk comes out of his drunken state and becomes aware that he entered into a contract, he can either choose to go ahead with the contract, in which case it becomes a valid contract. Or he can choose not to go ahead with it and then, it will be a void contract.
· Lunatics – A person who has an unsound mind does not have the mental capacity to enter into a contract. However, if he enters into an agreement during his lucid period, the agreement will be valid. During his lucid period, he is presumed to have full capacity to contract.
But if enters into the agreement when he was insane, it will be voidable. This means if he was suffering from mental disability at the time of entering the agreement and the other person was aware, the agreement will not be valid.
But if he had sufficient mental capacity, it will be a valid agreement.
· Illiterates – An illiterate has full legal capacity to enter into a valid contract. The contents and details of the contract must first be read and explained to him in the language he understands before he signs the contract.
In this context, an illiterate is anyone who may not be sufficiently literate to understand the meaning and effect of the document he is signing. So even if he is literate enough to read and sign his name, he may not be literate enough to understand the contents of the document.
· Infants – It is very clear that an infant does not have the capacity to enter into any agreement. But if the infant enters into an agreement for his/her necessaries, it will be binding. Necessaries are basically things the infant cannot possibly do without such as food, clothing.
A tailor who sewed some fancy waistcoats for an infant and wanted to enforce payment could not do so because the waistcoats were not necessaries. The infant already had clothes suitable for his condition in life and the waistcoats were just extravagant.
Once all these requirements are met, an agreement can be a valid contract.
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