Some advice requested for a minor

From: Steven Jamar <sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:00:01 -0500

Contracts with minors are not void ab initio. They are merely voidable by the minor.

If the contract has been fully performed, it is not generally held to be voidable by the minor any longer. It is only voidable so long as it is executory-- so long as there is something to void. A done deal cannot be voided -- the contract is done and gone.

But if the work is not yet finished, or the contract is otherwise still executory, it should be voidable by the minor.

This would not be preempted, probably, under statutory preemption insofar as it is not creating "legal or equitable rights that are equivalent to any of the exclusive rights . . ."

So that would leave Supremacy Cause preemption. Here, there is probably no preemption because there is no conflict. The wmfh contract is a contract still subject to contract law at the time it is made -- and so is subject to the voidability rule.

The copyright act does not address capacity to enter into a contract
-- that is for state law. So you could have 54 (or however many it
is now) different rules.

This is my off-the-cuff internet analysis -- not researched. I stand ready to be undone by contrary controlling authority.

Steve

--

Prof. Steven D. Jamar                               vox:  202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law                     fax:  202-806-8567
2900 Van Ness Street NW                   mailto:stevenjamar[_at_]gmail.com

Washington, DC 20008 http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar/

"I care not what subject is taught if only it be taught well."

Thomas H. Huxley Received on Mon Nov 28 2005 - 21:00:01 GMT