1. An act of denial; a repudiation, as of an earlier transaction. [Cases: Contracts 272. C.J.S. Contracts §§ 471, 484.]
2. A declaration that a voidable contract (such as one entered into by a minor) is void.
— Also termed disaffirmation. [Cases: Infants 58(1). C.J.S. Infants §§ 166, 172–174.]
“Disaffirmance is an operative act whereby the legal relations created by an infant’s contract are terminated and discharged and other legal relations substituted. Inasmuch as the infant’s executory promise does not operate to create any legal duty in him (the infant being at all times at liberty or privileged not to perform), his disaffirmance is not the discharge of such a duty. A return promise by an adult, however, creates a legal duty and the infant has a correlative right in personam. A disaffirmance terminates these.” William R. Anson, Principles of the Law of Contract 181 (Arthur L. Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919).
