A competent major and a competent emancipated minor have the procedural capacity to be sued.
Art. 731.Individuals Having Procedural Capacity
Title III. Parties · Chapter 3. Parties Defendant · Amendment history unavailable · Last verified July 30, 2026
In one sentenceArticle 731 says that a competent adult and a competent emancipated minor can be sued in their own name, opening Chapter 3's rules on which person or entity is the correct defendant for every other category of party.
Full Text of Art. 731
Plain-English Summary
Article 731 opens the Code's rules on parties defendant with the simplest case: an adult who has reached the age of majority, or a minor who has been freed from parental authority through marriage or a court judgment of emancipation, can be sued directly, in their own name, without anyone else standing in for them. Louisiana calls this power procedural capacity — the legal ability to stand as a party to a lawsuit and answer for oneself.
The word competent carries weight here. A major or emancipated minor loses that capacity if a court has interdicted them for mental incapacity, in which case Article 733 takes over and names a curator as the proper defendant instead. Article 731 marks the baseline; the articles that follow it in this chapter identify who stands in for everyone who falls outside that baseline — unemancipated minors, interdicts, successions, marital communities, partnerships, corporations, and more.
For anyone drafting or reviewing a petition, Article 731 is the starting checkpoint: before working through the specialized categories in Articles 732 through 743, confirm whether the person to be sued is a competent adult or emancipated minor. If so, no substitute defendant is needed — the person answers for themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does procedural capacity mean under Louisiana law?
It means the legal power to be a party to a lawsuit — to sue or be sued — in one's own name, without a tutor, curator, or other representative acting in one's place.
Who counts as a competent major under Article 731?
An adult who has reached Louisiana's age of majority, eighteen, and has not been interdicted by a court for mental incapacity. An adult under interdiction loses procedural capacity, and Article 733 governs who is sued instead.
What is an emancipated minor, and how does someone become one?
An emancipated minor is someone under eighteen who has been freed from parental authority, either by marrying or by obtaining a court judgment of emancipation. Emancipation gives the minor most of the legal powers of an adult, including the capacity to be sued directly under Article 731.
What happens if the person I want to sue is a minor who has not been emancipated?
Article 731 does not apply to an unemancipated minor. Article 732 governs that situation instead, directing the suit against the person with parental authority over the minor or the minor's tutor.
Source & verification. Article text is reproduced verbatim from
the vLex (Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, 2026 Edition). Enacted by the Louisiana Legislature.
Last verified July 30, 2026.
· Official source
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