Section 1: Legal administration

Legal administration is the responsibility of the parents. If parental authority is exercised jointly by both parents, each parent is the legal administrator. In other cases, legal administration belongs to whichever of the parents exercises parental authority.

Where legal administration is exercised jointly by the two parents, each of them is deemed, with regard to third parties, to have received from the other the power to carry out alone acts of administration relating to the minor’s property. The list of acts that are considered to be acts of administration is defined under the conditions of article 496.

Where the interests of the sole legal administrator or, as the case may be, of both legal administrators are in opposition to those of the minor, the latter shall request the appointment of an ad hoc administrator by the guardianship judge. Failing diligence on the part of the legal administrators, the judge may make this appointment at the request of the public prosecutor, the minor himself or of his own…

Property given or bequeathed to the minor on condition that it is administered by a third party is not subject to legal administration. The third party administrator has the powers conferred on him by the gift, the will or, failing that, those of a legal administrator. When the third-party administrator refuses this function or is in one of the situations provided for in articles 395 and 396, the guardianship judge…

The legal administrator is required to exercise prudent, diligent and informed care in the management of the minor’s property, in the sole interest of the minor.

The legal administrator is liable for any damage resulting from any fault he or she commits in the management of the minor’s property. If legal administration is exercised jointly, both parents are jointly and severally liable. The State is liable for any damage that may be caused by the guardianship judge and the director of the judicial registry services of the judicial court in the performance of their duties in…