According to Article 440, §1 of the French Civil Code, curatorship applies when a person needs assistance to take important actions. Article 425, §1 of the Said Code establishes a connection between the need for assistance and the ability to express a will. You already know from an earlier blog post that according to the French Cour de cassation that is the supreme court that deals with civil, commercial, and criminal matters, disability does not mean incapacity.1 This Court has recently decided a case regarding the concept of continual assistance mentioned in Article 440, §1 of the French Civil Code.2
A person requested the cancellation of her curatorship. She is able to express herself using a computer keyboard by acting on a device put on her head that actions metal rods that in turn action the keyboard keys. The equipment has to be installed by a third party.3
The Court of Appeal had stated that her comprehension and reasoning abilities were not affected and that she could anticipate events and say no. Nevertheless, the appeal judges had found that the installation of this equipment by a third party meant that the disabled person needed continual assistance to express her will, and therefore, the curatorship cancellation had been dismissed.
The Cour de cassation has not explicitly linked the ability to express a will with a specific legal concept related to incapacity to quash the appeal case. It has decided that the installation of the equipment by a third party enabled the person to validly express her will. Hence, one can understand that the installation of an equipment by a third party is not a continual assistance to express a will. If you practice artificial intelligence, you may ask yourself wether you can anticipate changes and decline them. If you find yourself implementing changes decided by others, you are more severely impaired than the claimant in this case!4
In brief, the medical assessment of a disability may distract from the expression of a will that is crucial to assess incapacity.
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The original reads as follows: "La personne qui, sans être hors d'état d'agir elle-même, a besoin, pour l'une des causes prévues à l'article 425, d'être assistée ou contrôlée d'une manière continue dans les actes importants de la vie civile peut être placée en curatelle." ↩
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C. Cass., Civ. I, 12 juin 2025, 24-12.767. ↩