Page:An introduction to Roman-Dutch law.djvu/77

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Parentage
37

of Court made at the father's instance[1] or (b) tacit, as when a son is permitted to live and carry on business by himself;[2] (3) marriage;[3] (4) majority;[4] to which Voet adds (5) public office or priesthood;[5] and Grotius (6) the placing of the father under curatorship.[6]


Chapter III

Minority

Minority. A minor by Roman-Dutch Law is a person of either sex who has not completed the twenty-fifth year.[7] For this the twenty-first year has been substituted by statute in all the Roman-Dutch Colonies.[8] As to the precise moment at which minority ends Voet makes the following distinction. The last day of minority is regarded as completed at the moment of its inception, where it is to the minor's advantage that it should be so considered;[9] but where the advantage lies the other way, so as, e.g., to prolong the benefit of restitutio in integrum, then, majority is not deemed to be attained until the very minute arrives at which birth took place.[10]

  1. Gr. 1. 6. 4; Voet, 1. 7. II. But see Decker ad Van Leeuwen, 1. 13. 5; V. d. L. 1. 4. 3 (note 4); V. d. K. Th. 107 and 110.
  2. The two conditions need not always co-exist. A separate establishment is enough, a separate business only if the parents have not expressed a contrary intention. V. d. K. Dictat. ad Gr. 1. 6. 4. According to Voet (1. 7. 12), the separate establishment must have continued for a year and a day.
  3. Gr. 1. 6. 4; Van Leeuwen, 1. 13. 4; Voet, 1. 7. 13.
  4. Van Leeuwen, 1. 13. 6; Voet, 1. 7. 15.
  5. Voet, 1. 7. 10. But see Van Leeuwen, 1. 13. 6.
  6. Gr., 1. 6. 5. But the child, of course, remains a minor. Van Leeuwen, ubi sup. A sentence of banishment (and in the modern law, no doubt, a long term of imprisonment) has the same effect. V. d. K. Th. 109.
  7. Gr. 1. 7. 3; Van Leeuwen, 1. 12. 3; Voet, 4. 4. 1.
  8. Cape, Ord. 62, 1829, sec. 1; Natal, Ord. No. 4 of 1846, sec. 1; Transvaal, Volksraad Resolution of December, 1853, Art. 123; O. F. S. Law Book of 1901, chap. 89, sec. 14; Ceylon, Ord. No. 7 of 1865, sec. 1; British Guiana, Ord. No. 1 of 1832.
  9. Voet, 4. 4. 1.
  10. Gr. 3. 48. 9; Voet, ubi sup. and 44. 3. 1; Cens. For. 1. 4. 43. 11, cf. Dig. 4. 4. 3. 3. In English law full age is reached at the beginning