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Missouri Revised Statutes

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 431.055 (2026)

Persons competent to contract when eighteen years of age

✓ current as of May 2026
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  431.055.  Persons competent to contract when eighteen years of age. — The legal age at which a person becomes competent to contract in Missouri is eighteen years and any rule or provision of the common law to the contrary is hereby abrogated.

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(L. 1974 2d Ex. Sess. S.B. 3 § 2)

Effective 1-07-75

CROSS REFERENCE:

Conveyances by minors binding, when, 442.080

(1979) Covenant not to sue is contract within meaning of term "contract" as to 18 years of age as legal age at which person becomes competent to contract. Holoman v. Harris (A.), 585 S.W.2d 530.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 8 cases, 1979–2014 · leading case: Richard E. Ivie, Jimmie R. Ivie, LaDonna Small, & Bernard Ivie v. Arnold L. Smith & Sidney B. Smith, 439 S.W.3d 189 (Mo. 2014).
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Richard E. Ivie, Jimmie R. Ivie, LaDonna Small, & Bernard Ivie v. Arnold L. Smith & Sidney B. Smith, 439 S.W.3d 189 (Mo. 2014). · cites it 2× “”); see also § 431.055, RSMo 2000 (stating that a person must be at least 18 years of age to make a contract).”
State v. Duggar, 806 S.W.2d 407 (Mo. 1991). “115, to execute binding contracts, § 431.055, to serve as guardians, §§ 475.”
Biermann v. Biermann, 584 S.W.2d 106 (Mo. Ct. App. 1979). “115 authorizes a person who is eighteen years of age to prosecute or defend a lawsuit in his own name as the real party in interest, and § 431.055 authorizes a person eighteen years of age to enter into a legally binding contract.”
Gross v. Gross, 625 S.W.2d 655 (Mo. Ct. App. 1981). “The judgment for the trustee rests on the premises that the beneficiary Angelia, then eighteen years of age, made a gift of the trust corpus to the trustee, a donation delivered by the daughter and accepted by the mother by the withdrawal of the accumulated mutual fund.”
Bright v. Bright, 989 S.W.2d 196 (Mo. Ct. App. 1999). “; enter into contracts, § 431.055; sue and be sued, § 507.115; and vote, § 115.”
Clark v. Martin, 650 S.W.2d 699 (Mo. Ct. App. 1983). “Sections 431.055 and 475.010, Laws 1979, p.”
Holoman ex rel. Holoman v. Harris, 585 S.W.2d 530 (Mo. Ct. App. 1979). · cites it 16× “184, RSMo 1978 1 ; that the release of tort claims is not within the meaning and intent of the Legislature in that § 431.055 did not impliedly repeal § 475.”
Miller v. Adkins, 857 S.W.2d 452 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993). · cites it 2× “§ 431.055 RSMo 1986. A person under that age is not competent to contract.”
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