APPENDIX:

STATUTORY AND JUDICIAL EMANCIPATION OF MINORS

IN THE UNITED STATES


Return to Chart

KANSAS

CHAPTER 38. MINORS

ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

38-101. Period of minority.

The period of minority extends in all persons to the age of eighteen (18) years, except that every person sixteen (16) years of age or over who is or has been married shall be considered of the age of majority in all matters relating to contracts, property rights, liabilities and the capacity to sue and be sued.

38-102. Minor bound by contracts, when.

Except as otherwise provided in K.S.A. 38-615 through K.S.A. 38-622, and amendments thereto, a minor is bound not only by contracts for necessaries, but also by the minor's other contracts, unless the minor disaffirms them within a reasonable time after the minor attains the minor's majority and restores to the other party all money or property received by the minor by virtue of the contract and remaining within the minor's control at any time after the minor attaining the minor's majority.

38-103. Contracts that may not be disaffirmed.

No contract can be thus disaffirmed in cases where, on account of the minor's own misrepresentations as to his majority, or from his having engaged in business as an adult, the other party had good reasons to believe the minor capable of contracting.

38-104. Payment for personal services.

When a contract for the personal service of a minor has been made with him alone, and those services are afterwards performed, payment made therefor to such minor in accordance with the terms of the contract is a full satisfaction for those services, and the parent or guardian cannot recover therefor.

38-108. District court may confer rights of majority.

That the district courts for the several counties in this state shall have authority to confer upon minors the rights of majority, concerning contracts and real and personal property, and to authorize and empower minors to purchase, hold, possess and control in their own person and right, and without the intervention or control of a guardian or trustee, any goods, chattels, rights, interests in lands, tenements and effects by such minor lawfully acquired or inherited; and such minor shall have full power to hold, convey and dispose of the same, and to make contracts and be subject to all the liabilities incident thereto, sue and be sued, and in all respects to exercise and enjoy all rights of property and of contracts in the same manner and to the same extent as persons at the age of majority.

38-109. Petition for rights of majority; notice; hearing; decree.

Any minor, desiring to obtain the rights of majority for the purposes named in the preceding section, may, by his or her next friend, file a petition in the district court of the county in which such minor shall reside, setting forth, first, the age of the minor petitioner, and that said petitioner is then and has been a bona fide resident of such county for at least one year next preceding the filing of the petition; second, the cause for which petitioner seeks to obtain the rights of majority. Such petition shall be filed as in other cases and notice of the hearing on said petition shall be given by publishing such notice for three consecutive weeks in some newspaper authorized by law to publish legal notices and the time of the hearing on said petition shall be not less than thirty days after the date of the first publication of said notice.

Upon proof in open court of the truth of the allegations in such petition and that said petitioner is a person of sound mind and able to transact his or her own affairs and that the interest of the petitioner shall be promoted thereby, the court may, in its discretion, order and decree that the petitioner be empowered to exercise the rights of majority for any and all purposes mentioned in K.S.A. 38-108, or any acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto; and thereupon such order and decree shall be entered on the records of said court; and thereafter all acts by said petitioner done and performed concerning any contract, rights in action, or interests in real or personal property, shall have the same force, validity and effect as if made by a person of full age.

38-110. Costs of proceedings under 38-108 to 38-110.

The costs of proceedings under this act shall be taxed against the minor petitioner, and the same shall be paid before the entry of the decree herein provided for.