ABSTRACT
We have established that the essential ‘ingredients’ of a contract are agreement in the form of offer and acceptance, consideration and legal intent. One further requirement for a contract to be valid, is the status of the people or parties to the contract. An agreement may well exist between anybody, but to be able to sue on it in law, the makers of the agreement must have full capacity. In general the law assumes that most adults have this contractual capacity, and are therefore competent or able to contract, but there are some exceptions to this general freedom to sue and be sued. These are:
• corporations (registered business organisations)
• persons of unsound mind and drunkards
• minors.
