Incapacity

Incapacity is a term of law that refers to a person's lack of capacity to engage in certain actions to which legal consequences attach. The basis for such a classification is typically insanity, dementia, or a similar mental handicap, although persons can be classified as lacking capacity for other reasons. For example, in the United States, some states have spendthrift laws under which an irresponsible spender may be deemed to lack capacity to enter into contracts. Under the old common law of England, married women lacked the capacity to contract.

Incapacity is a defense to a contract, because a person who lacks capacity to make contracts can not be held to them. Incapacity has been held by many courts not to be a defense to torts, however, because immunizing the incapacitated from liability for their wrongs would prevent injured parties from recovering from their losses.