Age of Majority Act 1973

Age of Majority Act 1973

This Act may be cited as the Age of Majority Act 1973.

This Act shall commence on a day to be fixed by proclamation.

In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears –

appointed day means the day fixed pursuant to section 1(2);

enactment means – an Act or a provision of an Act; and an Imperial Act that applies in the State or a provision of such an Imperial Act – and includes a regulation, rule, by-law, order, proclamation, or other document made or issued in the exercise of a power conferred by an Act, or by an Imperial Act, or by such a provision;

instrument means a document of whatever nature (not being an enactment, or a law of the Commonwealth, or a document made or having effect under such a law);

laws of the State means the laws in force in the State for the time being, whether written or unwritten, and documents made or having effect under those laws, but does not include a law of the Commonwealth or a document made or having effect under such a law.

Subject to this section and to section 6, for all the purposes of the laws of the State – a person who, on or after the appointed day, attains the age of 18 years shall be deemed to attain full age and full capacity on attaining that age; and a person who, on the appointed day, is of or over the age of 18 years but under the age of 21 years shall be deemed to have attained full age and full capacity on that day.

Subsection (1) applies and has effect, in the absence of a definition or of an indication of a contrary intention, for the purposes of the construction of the expressions "majority", "full age", "adult", "full capacity", "sui juris", and similar expressions, and the expressions "infant", "infancy", "minor", "minority", and similar expressions in – an enactment, whether passed or made before, on, or after the appointed day; and an instrument executed or made on or after that day.

This section does not affect a reference in an enactment or instrument to an age expressed in years.

This section does not affect any deficiency of juristic competence or capacity that is attributable to insanity, or mental infirmity, or any other factor distinct from age.

For all the purposes of the laws of the State, the time at which a person attains a particular age expressed in years is the commencement of the relevant anniversary of the date of his birth.

This section – has effect only where the relevant anniversary falls on the appointed day or on a subsequent day; and has effect, in relation to an enactment or instrument, subject to any provision contained in the enactment or instrument.

The amendments effected by this section have been incorporated into the authorised version of the following Acts:

Limitation of Actions Act 1836;

Mercantile Law Act 1935.

Notwithstanding anything in section 3 or any amendment made by section 5 – the law in force immediately before the appointed day relating to testamentary capacity and to the form of wills continues to apply to a will made before the appointed day; the law in force immediately before the appointed day and relating to the revocation of wills continues to apply to a revocation made before that day; and a will or other testamentary disposition of a testator who died before the appointed day shall be construed as if this Act had not commenced.

Notwithstanding any rule of law, a will or codicil executed before the appointed day shall not be treated for the purposes of section 3 as made on or after that day by reason only that the will or codicil is confirmed by a codicil executed on or after that day.

Where a trustee is empowered or directed by the provisions of a will or other testamentary disposition executed or made before the appointed day by a testator who dies on or after that day to pay or apply income, or capital money, or any other capital asset for the maintenance, education, advancement, or benefit of a person, nothing in this Act has the effect of limiting that power or direction.

Where by an instrument executed or made before the appointed day or by an enactment in force immediately before that day a trustee is empowered or directed to pay income to the parent or guardian of a person, or to apply it for the maintenance, education, advancement, or benefit of a person, the trustee also has power to pay it to that person himself if that person has attained the age of 18 years.

Subject to section 7, except to the extent that section 3 operates so as to enable a person to give a receipt or a discharge for or in respect of, or to assign or otherwise dispose of, or to disclaim rights or property, all property as to which a person has died intestate before the appointed day shall be distributed in accordance with the enactments and rules of law that would have applied to it if this Act had not commenced.

Subject to section 8, any order or directions in force immediately before the appointed day in relation to the control of money recovered by or otherwise payable to a minor in any proceedings or as a result of the compromise or settlement of a claim for money or damages has effect as if a reference to the minor's attaining the age of 21 years or full age (however expressed) were a reference to his attaining the age of 18 years or, in the case of a person to whom section 3(1)(b) relates, to the appointed day.

Nothing in this Act affects any estate, right, or interest in real or personal property to which a person has become absolutely entitled, whether beneficially or otherwise, before the appointed day.

Nothing in this Act affects the liability of a person to pay alimony or maintenance under an order or agreement that is in force immediately before the appointed day.

Nothing in this Act or in any amendment made by section 5 affects the time for bringing proceedings in respect of a cause of action that arose before the appointed day.

Nothing in this Act affects the construction of an enactment where it is incorporated in, and has effect as part of, an instrument the construction of which is not affected by this Act.

Nothing in this Act affects – conditions of employment or rights or obligations arising from employment; or the construction of – an industrial award, order, or determination; or any instrument that is executed or entered into pursuant to an enactment and that prescribes or regulates wages or other conditions of, or relating to, apprenticeship.

Where a person (in this section referred to as a "beneficiary") who, by virtue of the operation of section 3, is or becomes enabled to give a receipt or a discharge for or in respect of, or to assign or otherwise dispose of, or to disclaim rights or property directs the administrator or trustee (as the case may be) of the estate or any part of the estate of a person who died intestate before the appointed day to deal with or dispose of that estate or any part thereof in accordance with such directions as the beneficiary is, by virtue of the operation of that section, enabled to give, the administrator or trustee may refuse to comply with the direction if – where there are more beneficiaries than one, all the beneficiaries have not joined in giving the direction; or the administrator or trustee is of the opinion that, for any reason, he would be failing to exercise the utmost diligence in the administration of the estate if he were to act in accordance with the direction before the beneficiary by whom the direction is given has attained such age (not exceeding 21 years) as may be determined by the administrator or trustee.

An administrator or trustee who refuses to act in accordance with a direction under subsection (1) shall forthwith give notice thereof in writing to the beneficiary, setting out the reason for the refusal.

A beneficiary who receives a notice under subsection (2) in which the reason for refusal is stated to be such an opinion of the administrator or trustee as is referred to in paragraph (b) of that subsection, may take out an originating summons claiming that to act in accordance with the direction would not be a failure to exercise the utmost diligence in the administration of the estate.

An originating summons taken out under subsection (3) is returnable before a judge in chambers and the proceedings thereon shall be the same in all respects as if the matter for determination were a cause or matter that, before the commencement of the Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932, would have come before the Supreme Court in its jurisdiction in equity.

Notwithstanding section 6(6), the person (in this section referred to as "the trustee") who has the control, on behalf of another person (in this section referred to as "the minor"), of money to which that subsection relates may refuse to pay that money to the minor until the minor attains such age (not exceeding 21 years) as the trustee may determine, if the trustee is of the opinion that it would not be in the minor's best interests if the money were to be paid to him before he attains the age so determined.

Where the trustee so refuses he shall forthwith give notice in writing of his refusal to the minor, setting out the trustee's reasons for the refusal.

On receipt of a notice under subsection (2), the minor may take out an originating summons claiming that it would be in the minor's best interests if the trustee were to pay the money to the minor.

An originating summons taken out under subsection (3) is returnable before a judge in chambers and the proceedings thereon shall be in all respects as if the matter for determination were a cause or matter that, before the commencement of the Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932, would have come before the Supreme Court in its jurisdiction in equity.