“A minor could validly enter into certain contracts, and that contracts with a minor are not void ab initio, but voidable at the instance of the minor.”
This was the argument put forward by Attorney-at-law Derick Sylvester on behalf of his client, Sherma Charles in a case involving two warring factions in a property dispute in St Andrew.
Sylvester was able to get the nod from female high court judge Justice Agnes Actie against his colleague, newly designated Kings Counsel Ruggles Ferguson.
The case involves Sherma Charles who was represented by Sylvester and Aul Charles, Yoland Thomas, Elroy Charles, and Shanna Charles who had retained Ferguson, KC whose argument did not caught the eye of Justice Actie.
Ferguson contended that Sherma Charles who was a minor at the time of the purported agreement for the purchase of a property at Pearls lacked capacity to contract and accordingly the agreement was void and unenforceable.
In delivering her ruling, the high court judge said: “The court agrees with Mr Sylvester as it is trite law that a contract entered by a minor for the purchase of land, like any other contract, is valid and is only voidable by the minor during his/her minority or within a reasonable time of attaining full age. The contract is binding unless and until expressly repudiated by the minor.”
As a public service, THE NEW TODAY reproduces in full the Justice Actie judgment in the case:-
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