INFANT. .\ t common law. any at de or fe male person tinder the age of twenty-one years. \, the ...Hinton I tw no account of a Ira t film of a day exeept when a question of property involved. an infant held to he-one of the day before the twenty-tirst anniversary of I is birth. It has always the policy of the law to infants front the econsecpienves of their CM 11 indiscretion by In of many of 1.114 rules of law' applicable to adults. an infai is contra, t, are voidable (not void like the contract, of married women). That is. they are binding upon an adult contracting with the infant. but tiny may he avoided by the in fant upon the ground of hi, infancy: but if the infant expressly or by in plieation ratifies the contract after he is 01 ago, the contract cannot he afterward, avoided by hint. (see 11.t•rffac.t \•henever an infat t disaffirms his con t lie is entitled upon print iplts of c•ontract (q.v.) to recover from the other party to the contract the reasonable value of the con j(ill or performative which he (the infant) ha, given under the FAO, 1 ten though he has (before 'mining of age) slittandercd the consider ation us hieli he has receised tinder the contract. If, however, the infant lune alc? money or prop erty 111111 Inc used under the ',Intl:net, he must return it to the other party to the ,'on tract in order to disaffirm the contract. \\ Milo an infant is not bound by his eontract, he is bound IQ pay bit' necessaries (See ss t tors) purchased hint, his liability being ba,ed on the theory Qf quasi-eont raet. .\n infant 11111y his parent's credit for neeessaries upon theory of implied agency if the parent 'toes not supply th•111. parent is not liable to pay for articles supplied to his child by a Iliad per son lout a parent fluty so act to estop himself from den ing the authority of the infant to act a, his agent, as by regulart? pa?ing f .r articles purchased by the infant.
In general, infants are liable for their tilts. \\lien% littwe‘er, the ellcct of Inildin•• the infant for tort is indirectly to enforce contract, the courts have denied his in tort. The practi•al application of this rule 111l111Ve, Very fur the T11114 all infant who hires a horse, and so negligently eaves for hint that the horse is injured, is not liable for tort to: 1111011 Its contract; if rho infant the hors,. to hi, o‘vo by going to some place other that specified in the contract, he is deemed to have abandoned his contract and to be liable in tort, Similarly it Las been held that. while an infant is gent rally
liable for deceit (q.v.). one who fraudulently rep resents himself to be of full age amd pro cures another to enter into it contract with him is not liable for the tort, hilt the soundness of the position been questioned.
.\11 infant who a property-holder is subject lo the law: lif taxation, and his land is liable to be taken from hint by eminent doittain as if he were of ago. .\ t eon mon law a It".m1 nilirriage might be contracted bet \vett] a boy f lot riven and a t•irl of twelve. See .\ It infant if sufficiently intelligent to have eriminal intent is responsible for any that he may commit. It is a rule of the common law that this responsibility can never iris • la fore the infant is seven years of age. After that period until he is fourteen Ihe law presume, nothing for or against hint. llis rapacity to understand the nature and consequence of act must proved by the prosecution in ordt r to establish his guilt. After lie is fourteen he is presumed to have capacity to commit crime. and the burden of creating a reasonable doubt of Ids capacity rests upon hint. See further under .\(;•; The parents are entitled to the custody nf the child during infantry, and they are also to until this right is voluntarily renouneed then I. when the infant is said to be emancipated. betuseen the father and the mother, the father was at common law: entitled to the of the child, The modern tendency of the courts is to accord the eti,tmly in ease of dispute to the parent best able and qualified to care for the child.
In many States male infants of eighteen year, or over may be administrators.
are not permitted to sue in their own and right in either courts of law or equity.
The action must be brought by the infant's near friend (pro•hain ami) or guardian ad !item, who is a relative, a friend, or other proper per son permitted by the court to prosecute the action in the infant's behalf. Courts of equity early constituted themselves the especial pro tectors of infants, giving them relief in various ways, particularly by appointing guardians over their person and property. • The care of an in fant's property by guardian is now generally regulated by statute (see GrAnntAN), the effect of which is to place the infant's property in the possession of a guardian appointed by the court, who is required to invest and tare for the prop erty as a trustee for the infant. See CoNTitAcr; DOMESTIC RELATIONS: and consult the authori ties there referred to.