Age of Majority
AGE OF MAJORITY ACT

CHAPTER 46:06

LAWS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Act
28 of 1973

Amended by
17 of 1981
66 of 2000

L.R.O.

Current Authorised Pages
Pages Authorised

(inclusive) by L.R.O.
1–9 ..

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Note on Subsidiary Legislation

This Chapter contains no subsidiary legislation.

Note on section 5

The Attachment of Earnings (Maintenance) Act, (Ch. 45:52) applies to a Maintenance
Order made under section 5(2) of this Act. (See Schedule 1, Item 7, to Act, Ch. 45:52).

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Age of Majority Chap. 46:06 3

CHAPTER 46:06

AGE OF MAJORITY ACT

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION

1. Short title.
2. Reduction of age of majority from twenty-one to eighteen.
3. Maintenance for children under Infants Act to continue to age

twenty-one.
4. Construction for Part III of Wills and Probate Act.
5. Maintenance for wards of Court.
6. Time at which a person attains a particular age.
7. Persons under full age may be described as minors instead of infants.
8. Funds in Court.
9. Wardship and custody orders.

10. Adoption orders.
11. Powers of trustees to apply income for maintenance of minor.
12. Personal representatives’ powers during minority of beneficiary.
13. Accumulation periods.
14. Limitation of actions.
15. Statutory provisions incorporated in deeds, wills, etc.

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CHAPTER 46:06

AGE OF MAJORITY ACT

An Act to amend the law relating to the age of majority, to
persons who have not attained that age and to the time
when a particular age is attained.

[15TH NOVEMBER 1973]

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

REDUCTION OF AGE OF MAJORITY
AND RELATED PROVISIONS

2. (1) Subject to this Act as from the date on which this Act
comes into operation, a person shall attain full age on attaining the
age of eighteen instead of on attaining the age of twenty-one; and
a person shall attain full age on that date if he has then already
attained the age of eighteen but not the age of twenty-one.

(2) Subsection (1) applies for the purposes of any rule of
law, and in the absence of a definition or of any indication of a
contrary intention, for the construction of “full age”, “infant”,
“infancy”, “minor”, “minority” and similar expressions in—

(a) this Act and any other written law whether passed
or made before, on or after the date on which this
Act comes into operation; and

(b) any deed, will or other instrument of whatever
nature (not being a statutory instrument) made
on or after that date.

(3) Notwithstanding any rule of law, a will or codicil
executed before the date on which this Act comes into operation
shall not be treated for the purposes of this section as made on or
after that date by reason only that the will or codicil is confirmed
by a codicil executed on or after that date.

*(4) The President may by Order substitute for a reference
to the age of twenty-one years in any written law a reference to the
age of eighteen years.

28 of 1973.

Commencement.
187/1973.

Short title.

Reduction of
age of majority
from twenty-one
to eighteen.

*An Order (GN 26/1975) has been made under this subsection. The original Act contained a Schedule
of enactments in which the substitution provided for in this subsection was made. The enactments
concerned have been accordingly amended and the Schedule omitted.

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Maintenance for
children under
Infants Act to
continue to age
twenty-one.
[17 of 1981].
Ch. 46:02.

Ch. 46:02.

Construction for
Part III of Wills
and Probate Act.
Ch. 9:03.

Maintenance for
wards of Court.
[17 of 1981
66 of 2000].

3. (1) An order under section 4(4), 9(2) or 12 of the Infants
Act for the payment of sums towards the maintenance or education
of a minor may require such sums to continue to be paid in respect
of any period after the date on which he ceases to be a minor but
not extending beyond the date on which he attains the age of twenty-
one; and any order which is made as mentioned above may provide
that any sum which is payable thereunder for the benefit of a person
who has ceased to be a minor shall be paid to that person himself.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), where a person who has
ceased to be a minor but has not attained the age of twenty-one has,
while a minor, been the subject of an order under any of the provisions
of the Infants Act, the Court may, on the application of either parent
of that person or of that person himself, make an order requiring
either parent to pay to the other parent, to anyone else for the benefit
of that person or to that person himself, in respect of any period not
extending beyond the date when he attains the said age, such weekly
or other periodical sums towards his maintenance or education as
the Court thinks reasonable having regard to the means of the person
on whom the requirement is imposed.

(3) No order shall be made under subsection (2) and no
liability under such an order shall accrue, at a time when the parents
of the person in question are residing together, and if they so reside
for a period of three months after such an order has been made it
shall cease to have effect.

(4) (Deleted by Act No. 17 of 1981).
(5) Subsection (2) shall be construed as one with the

Infants Act.

4. For the purposes of Part III of the Wills and Probate Act,
the dependants of a deceased person shall continue to include any
son who has not attained the age of twenty-one.

*5. (1) In this section “the Court” means the High Court of Justice.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Court

may make an Order—
(a) requiring either parent of a ward of Court to pay

to the other parent; or

*See Note on page 2.

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(b) requiring either parent or both parents of a ward
of Court to pay to any other person having the
care and control of the ward,

such weekly or other periodical sums towards the maintenance
and education of the ward as the Court thinks reasonable having
regard to the means of the person or persons on whom the
requirement is imposed.

(3) An order under subsection (2) may require such sums
as are mentioned in that subsection to continue to be paid in respect
of any period after the date on which the person for whose benefit
the payments are to be made ceases to be a minor but not beyond
the date on which he attains the age of twenty-one, and any order
made as mentioned above may provide that any sum which is
payable thereunder for the benefit of that person after he has ceased
to be a minor shall be paid to that person himself.

(4) Subject to this section, where a person who has ceased
to be a minor but has not attained the age of twenty-one has at any
time been the subject of an order making him a ward of Court, the
Court may, on the application of either parent of that person or of
that person himself, make an order requiring either parent to pay
to the other parent, to anyone else for the benefit of that person or
to that person himself, in respect of any period not extending beyond
the date when he attains the said age, such weekly or other
periodical sums towards his maintenance or education as the Court
thinks reasonable having regard to the means of the person on
whom the requirement in question is imposed.

(5) (Deleted by Act No. 66 of 2000).
(6) (Deleted by Act No. 17 of 1981).
(7) The Court shall have power from time to time by an

order under this section to vary or discharge any previous order
thereunder.

6. (1) The time at which a person attains a particular age
expressed in years shall be the commencement of the relevant
anniversary of the date of his birth.

Time at which a
person attains a
particular age.

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Persons under
full age may be
described as
minors instead
of infants.

Funds in Court.

Wardship and
custody orders.

Ch. 46:02.

Ch. 4:01.

(2) This section applies only where the relevant
anniversary falls on a date after that on which this Act comes into
operation and, in relation to any written law, deed, will or other
instrument, has effect subject to any provision therein.

7. A person who is not of full age may be described as a
minor instead of as an infant, and accordingly in this Act “minor”
means such a person as aforesaid.

8. Any order or directions in force immediately before this
Act comes into operation by virtue of any Rules of Court or other
written law relating to the control of money recovered by or
otherwise payable to an infant in any proceedings, shall have effect
as if any reference therein to the infant’s attaining the age of twenty-
one were a reference to his attaining the age of eighteen or, in
relation to a person who by virtue of this Act attains full age on the
date this Act comes into operation to that date.

9. (1) Any order in force immediately before this Act comes
into operation—

(a) making a person a ward of Court; or
(b) under the Infants Act or under the Supreme Court

of Judicature Act, for the custody of, access to,
any person, which is expressed to continue in
force until the person who is the subject of the
order attains the age of twenty-one, or any age
between eighteen and twenty-one, shall have
effect as if the reference to his attaining that age
were a reference to his attaining the age of
eighteen or, in relation to a person who by virtue
of this Act attains full age on the date this Act
comes into operation.

(2) This section is without prejudice to so much of any
order as makes provision for the maintenance or education of a
person after he has attained the age of eighteen.

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10. This Act shall not prevent the making of an adoption order
or provisional adoption order under the Adoption of Children Act
in respect of a person who has attained the age of eighteen if the
application for the order was made before this Act comes into
operation and in relation to any such case that Act shall have effect
as if this Act had not been enacted.

11. (1) This Act shall not affect section 32 of the Trustee
Ordinance—

(a) in its application to any interest under an
instrument made before this Act comes into
operation;

(b) in its application, by virtue of any rules of law, to
the estate of an intestate (within the meaning of
the Administration of Estates Ordinance) dying
before that date.

(2) In any case in which (whether by virtue of this section
or section 15) trustees have power under section 32(1)(a) of the
Trustee Ordinance to pay income to the parent or guardian of any
person who has attained the age of eighteen or to apply it for or
towards the maintenance, education or benefit of any such person,
they shall also have power to pay it to that person himself.

12. In the case of a beneficiary whose interest arises under a
will or codicil made before this Act comes into operation or on the
death before that date of an intestate (within the meaning of the
Administration of Estates Ordinance), nothing in this Act shall
affect the powers of the personal representatives regarding—

(a) investment of the residue of any moneys arising
on a trust for sale; or

(b) other powers of management in the administration
of estates,

at any time before the beneficiary attains the age of twenty-one.

13. The change, by virtue of this Act, in the construction of
any rule of law which lays down permissible periods for the
accumulation of income under settlements and other dispositions

Adoption
orders.
Ch. 46:03.

Powers of
trustees to apply
income for
maintenance of
minor.
Ch. 8 No. 3
(1950 Ed.).

Ch. 8 No. 1
(1950 Ed.).

Personal
representatives’
powers during
minority of
beneficiary.
Ch. 8 No. 1
(1950 Ed.).

Accumulation
periods.

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shall not invalidate any direction for accumulation in a settlement
or other disposition made by a deed, will or other instrument which
was made before this Act comes into operation.

14. The change, by virtue of this Act, in the construction of
section 10 of the Limitation of Personal Actions Ordinance
(limitation in case of person under disability) shall not affect the
time for bringing proceedings in respect of a cause of action which
arose before this Act comes into operation.

15. This Act shall not affect the construction of any statutory
provision where it is incorporated in and has effect as part of any
deed, will or other instrument the construction of which is not
affected thereby.

Limitation of
actions.
Ch. 5 No. 6
(1950 Ed.).

Statutory
provisions
incorporated in
deeds, wills, etc.

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