[Impaired physical capacity is not sufficient to order a legal protective measure].

Abstract

A court of appeal refused to release an 85-year-old person suffering from total blindness from a reinforced curatorship, on the grounds that daily assistance was required to manage her affairs and maintain her home, even though she was not suffering from any mental impairment. In a ruling handed down on March 27, 2024, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) censured the court of appeal, pointing out that the opening of a guardianship measure requires a finding by the judges that there has been a medically established alteration either in the mental faculties of the interested party, or in his bodily faculties such as to prevent him from expressing his wishes, and that he needs to be assisted or controlled on an ongoing basis in the important acts of civil life.