Morals of the Church
Library › Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis › Volume II › Treatise XI. On The Virtue Of Justice And The Opposed Vices › Section I. On Right And On The Virtue Of Justice Itself › Question I. On Right Itself › Chapter III. On The Subject Of Right Or Dominion › Article II. On The Dominion Of Children Of Families

Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis

§ 2. On The Dominion Of Children Of Families According To German Law

29.

29. Preliminary Notes.

  1. According to German law, every man is capable of dominion (rechtsfähig) immediately after birth,92 indeed he is capable of taking an inheritance (erbfähig) immediately after conception.93

  2. Only minor-aged sons and major-aged sons are distinguished; to the latter are equated emancipated sons (großjährig erklärte Kinder).

  3. Minor-aged persons are considered to be those who have not yet completed 21 years of their age. To them are equated those who are declared by law altogether unfit or at least insufficiently apt for doing business (entmündigt werden).

  4. Major-aged persons are considered to be men after the 21st year of their age. To these are equated emancipated children. But in order that someone be emancipated, three conditions are required, namely: a) that the son have completed the 18th year of age; b) that both he himself and sometimes also his guardian give consent; c) that the tutelary tribunal (Vormundschaftsgericht) authentically pronounce this emancipation, and indeed on account of the utility of the one to be emancipated.94 Therefore according to German law emancipation is not had by the very fact that someone licitly enters marriage, as, for example, is established by the Swiss code.95

Dominion Of Minor-Aged Persons.

  1. Minor-aged persons before the completion of the seventh year of their age and after this seven-year period until the time of majority or emancipation are distinguished.

  2. Minor-aged persons before the completion of the seventh year of their age are altogether unfit (geschäftsunfähig) for the exercise of any act of dominion. The same is valid concerning those who on account of insanity have been declared unfit by a judge.96

  3. Minor-aged persons after the completion of the seventh year of their age are limited as to the exercise of dominion (beschränkte Geschäftsfähigkeit).97 The same is valid concerning those who have been declared by a judge not sufficiently apt. Moreover, not sufficiently apt for the exercise of any dominion can be declared: a) not only the insane, but also the demented; b) dissipators exposing their own or the family's fortune to danger; c) those addicted to drunkenness.98 Nevertheless, minor-aged persons can have the free exercise of perfect dominion if with due permission of the tutelary judge and guardian they carry out some business or hire out their labors.99

  4. The administration and usufruct of goods proper to minor-aged persons pertain to the father or mother, unless nevertheless these goods are free goods.100

  5. Free goods of minor-aged persons are:

a) things pertaining to the personal uses of the son, for example garments, ornaments, utensils;

b) wages and revenues which the son has either from his labor or from some business legitimately undertaken;

c) inheritances or gifts received, if nevertheless the testator or donor expressly established that those gifts constitute the son's free goods.

Although the usufruct of these goods does not pertain to the father, but to the son, nevertheless administration seems ordinarily to pertain to the father, unless the contrary has been established concerning the goods enumerated under n. c). Whence the father can demand that sons hand over the wage received from labor done in another's workshop. Nevertheless, he must spend that wage for the good of the son. It is greatly to be advised (at least for the most part) that parents administer all goods of minor-aged persons, which otherwise, as experience proves, are often dissipated. But this paternal right of administering the free goods of minor-aged sons does not seem to induce so grave an obligation that the son of itself sins mortally if he wounds it. Hence minor-aged sons indeed are greatly to be warned that they hand over the wage received for their labors to the parents; if nevertheless they refuse this and at least compensate the parents for the expenses of support, they can be absolved in the confessional. A fortiori this must be said if the sons retain only a small part of the wage and hand over the rest to the parents.

  1. Minor-aged persons not having free goods can make no onerous contract without the permission (at least presumed) of the father or guardian.101 Hence their purchases and sales are not valid, contracted debts do not oblige, etc.

  2. Minor-aged sons have no right to a wage if they labor in the paternal house or workshop.102 Hence they sin against justice and are held to restitution if they secretly take anything from paternal goods. Concerning the quantity of this restitution and the causes excusing from it, the discourse will return below, n. 83.

Dominion Of Major-Aged Persons.

  1. Major-aged sons have full dominion of their own goods; for they are perfectly of their own right.

  2. Nevertheless, according to their powers and state, they are held to serve the parents as to the family estate and their affairs.

  3. Unless a major-aged son has expressly demanded compensation for the fruits perceived by the parents from his own proper goods, he is presumed to have conceded fruits of this kind gratuitously to the parents.103

  4. Major-aged daughters have a right to a competent dowry, unless nevertheless the parents have legitimately objected against the marriage to be entered.104

  5. For the confessor, the following things seem to be noted in practice:

a) A major-aged son working outside the paternal house or workshop is indeed held to contribute to sustaining the paternal family, but the wage obtained is his property, and therefore he can dispose of it without wounding justice.

b) A major-aged son working in the paternal house or workshop does not have a strict right to a suitable wage, and therefore he cannot secretly compensate himself. But when the son by extraordinary labor increases the family estate of the father, and otherwise he would be of a much worse condition than his brothers or sisters, he can demand indemnity.

Scholion. In regions where the German civil code is in force, let this be the general rule: Before the fact, let the confessor generally admonish all children of families, whether minor-aged or major-aged, that they expend their labor gratuitously for the paternal family estate and be content with those goods which the father or mother liberally concedes. After the fact, namely if children of families, whether minor-aged or major-aged, have retained something of their wage, but have handed over a sufficient part for their own support, they are not to be compelled to restitution.

92 Cod. civ. Germ. § 1.

93 § 1923.

94 §§ 3-5.

95 Art. 14.

96 § 104.

97 § 106 sqq.

98 § 6.

99 § 112 sqq.

100 §§ 1649-1651.

101 §§ 102, 110-112.

102 § 1617.

103 § 1618.

104 § 1621.

Property Rights of Minors