Minor Business

It is well-settled under Mississippi law that Chancery Courts have great authority and latitude when it comes to conducting minor’s business.  See Miss. Const., Art. 6 § 159 (“The chancery court shall have full jurisdiction” in matters and cases involving “minor’s business”).  See also Alack v. Phelps, 230 So.2d 789, 793 (Miss. 1970) (“Children are under the disability of minority and cannot act for themselves.  The equity court will protect their rights.”). 

Long ago, the Mississippi Supreme Court summed up well the broad authority conferred upon Chancery Courts to protect the rights of minors:

Infants and persons of unsound mind are disabled under the law to act for themselves.  Long ago it became the established rule for the court of chancery to act as the superior guardian for all persons under such disability….It is the inescapable duty of the said court and the chancellor to act with constant care and solicitude towards the preservation and protection of the rights of infants….The court will take nothing as confessed against them; will make for them every valuable election; will rescue them from faithless guardians, designing strangers…and in general will and must take all necessary steps to conserve and protect the best interest of these wards of the court.

Union Chevrolet Co. v. Arrington, 138 So. 593, 595 (Miss. 1932).