Short answer. Only for necessaries. The Civil Code makes a minor who is sold and delivered necessaries pay a reasonable price for them, even though minors generally lack capacity to bind themselves by contract. Purchases outside that narrow category of necessaries are not covered by this rule and stand on different footing.
What the law says
Where necessaries are those sold and delivered to a minor or other person without capacity to act, he must pay a reasonable price therefor.
Civil Code, Article 1489 — Who May Buy and Sell; Necessaries. Read the full provision →
The general rule and its narrow exception
Article 1489 opens by saying that persons authorized in this Code to obligate themselves may enter into a contract of sale, which is a reminder that a minor, generally speaking, lacks that capacity. The article then carves out a specific exception: where necessaries are those sold and delivered to a minor or other person without capacity to act, he must pay a reasonable price therefor. That exception exists so that merchants who supply what a minor genuinely needs are not left unable to collect simply because their buyer could not otherwise contract.
Only what counts as necessaries triggers the duty
The obligation to pay does not attach to ordinary purchases a minor makes — it attaches specifically to necessaries, as the Code defines that term elsewhere. A minor who buys something outside that category is not automatically bound to pay simply by virtue of Article 1489; that purchase is governed by the general rules on a minor's capacity to contract rather than by this exception. Whether a given item qualifies as a necessary is a question of fact, and it will depend on the minor's actual circumstances and station in life.
Delivery matters, and the price owed is a reasonable one
The article ties the duty to pay to necessaries sold and delivered — the goods actually have to have reached the minor, not merely been agreed to. And what the minor owes is a reasonable price for the necessaries, which is not necessarily the contract price the seller quoted. If a seller is demanding full payment of an agreed price rather than a reasonable value for what was actually necessary and delivered, that distinction is worth pressing.
What this means in practice
If you are a parent or guardian being asked to make a minor pay for a purchase, start by asking whether the item was genuinely a necessary for that minor — food, basic clothing, medical care, and similar essentials sit differently than discretionary or luxury purchases. If you are a seller extending credit to a minor for something other than a necessary, understand that the ordinary rules on a minor's capacity to contract, not this article, govern whether that debt can be enforced.