Also known as: legal age · age of majority
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
An age at which a person attains full legal capacity for specified purposes under Roman law. The concept marks the point at which protective rules for minors no longer apply to transactions such as wills, gifts, contracts, and family support obligations.
Joseph, age seventeen, signed a letter directing his annuity payments to his stepbrother after death. Because Joseph had not reached aetas legitima, the writing was void and could not be probated, so the assets passed by intestacy to his mother.
A state court issued a child-support order for Ariana that continued after she turned eighteen. The order remained enforceable because the statute defined a child-support order to include payments for a child who had attained aetas legitima under the issuing state's law.
Angela and Anthony began living together after both reached eighteen. Their agreement concerning contributions to the household was enforceable under the cohabitants statute because each had attained aetas legitima before the relationship began.
A testator left property to the children of her genetic daughter. The daughter's nonmarital son qualified for the gift because the daughter had functioned as his parent before he reached aetas legitima.
A state law required fathers to support daughters until age twenty-one but sons only until eighteen. The Supreme Court struck down the distinction because it rested on an arbitrary difference in the age at which each gender reached aetas legitima for support purposes.
Thelma B. Stanton and James Lawrence Stanton, Jr., married in Elko, Nevada, in February 1951. They were divorced in Utah on November 29, 1960. The couple had a daughter, Sherri Lyn, born in February 1953, and a son, Rick Arlund, born in January 1955. During the divorce proceedings in the District Court of Salt Lake County, the parties entered into a stipulation as to property, child support, and alimony. The court awarded custody of the children to their mother and incorporated the stipulation into its decree, ordering the father to pay three hundred dollars per month, consisting of one hundred dollars for each child as support and one hundred dollars as alimony. The appellant remarried, after which the court modified the decree to relieve the appellee from further alimony payments. The appellee also later remarried. When Sherri attained eighteen on February 12, 1971, the appellee discontinued payments for her support. Rick attained eighteen on January 29, 1973. In May 1973 the appellant moved the divorce court for entry of judgment for support for the children after each respectively attained the age of eighteen. The court concluded that Sherri had become eighteen and thereby attained her majority under Utah Code Annotated section 15-2-1, so the appellee was not obligated for her maintenance and support after that date. The appellant appealed to the Supreme Court of Utah, contending that the statute's different ages of majority for males and females denied due process and equal protection. The Utah court affirmed the denial of support for Sherri after age eighteen. The United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction. The appellee suggested that the support issue was moot and that the appellant lacked standing, but the proceedings continued to address those contentions along with the merits of the statutory challenge.
View caseA state nursing school admitted only women and required applicants to be at least eighteen. The policy was challenged because it used a single age threshold for aetas legitima while excluding men from the program entirely.
Under the Restatement, aetas legitima for will-making is eighteen unless a statute provides otherwise. A person below that age who has not been emancipated lacks capacity, and any purported will is void.
No. After reaching aetas legitima the former minor may ratify or disaffirm a prior gift. Failure to disaffirm within a reasonable time after majority constitutes ratification.
Yes. The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act expressly defines a child-support order to include payments for a child who has already attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state.
A nonmarital child is treated as a child of the genetic parent for class-gift purposes if the genetic parent or certain relatives functioned as a parent before the child reached aetas legitima.
…gender-based classifications. In Stanton v. Stanton , 421 U.S. 7 (1975), the Court held that a statute that imposed a greater age of majority on males than on females was unconstitutional. The Court held that the statute was not substantially related to the achievement of any important governmental objective. In Weinberger v.…