Supreme Court

The nullification of a marriage is commonly called annulment. Annulment is the process by which a Court states that a marriage never legally existed. An annulment must be based on mental illness, fraud, forced consent, physical incapacity to consummate the marriage, lack of consent to underage marriage, or bigamy. Children of a marriage annulled for bigamy or mental illness are legitimate. In annulment cases, the court may award custody of children of the marriage and require child support and support of a party. Annulment is different from divorce.


Separation may mean either the date of physical separation or “legal separation,” a Judgment of Legal Separation. The act of physical separation triggers important legal consequences relating to property rights and debt liabilities. Legal separation resembles divorce in that property and debts are usually divided, and custody rights and support are awarded, but spouses are still married and cannot remarry. They may still file joint tax returns and be covered dependents on health insurance.

Annulment grounds are limited to fraud, bigamy, and insanity. There are specific legal tests to meet these criteria. Either the husband or the wife may apply to the Court for the annulment of a marriage if either party can show any of the following:

Elements for Nullification:

    8. One of them was physically and incurably impotent at the time of the marriage unless the other spouse knew about the impotence before the marriage;
    9. Marriage is prohibited by law due to the relationship between the parties. Grounds for annulment may be set forth by statute or, in many jurisdictions, common-law grounds suffice. The specific grounds at common law are:
      1. Undisclosed prior marriage occurs when a marriage is entered into by one party still married to a third person. Many jurisdictions would allow annulment even if the party seeking the annulment knew the
      2. The person he or she was marrying had not been legally divorced or was denied the right to remarry after a divorce.
      3. Violation of divorce decree or statute barring remarriage: Some statutes prohibit remarriage after divorce or within a certain time period after divorce or remarriage to a particular person. Violation of such statutes of divorce decrees to this effect are grounds for annulment.
      4. A marriage entered into with intention that it should not be binding; mock marriage; trial marriage: The majority rule states that a party to the marriage may seek an annulment in a court of equity where the marriage results from levity, jest, no intention to bind or enter into a relationship, or no intention to assume rights or responsibilities of marriage. Annulment makes the marriage void. An agreement to enter into a trial marriage where either party by agreement has the option to annul the marriage ceremony is performed “in jest.” Where persons agree to marry to accomplish the desired objective (for example, the legitimization of a child), the majority of courts will regard the marriage as valid and will not annul on this basis.
      5. Underage of consent: The jurisdiction to annul marriages by people who are not of legal age to consent at the time of marriage is generally conferred by statute. Some courts hold these statutes applicable even where residents of the state go to another state, have the ceremony performed, and immediately return to their former residence. However, the marriage was valid where performed. Other courts hold that if the marriage were permissible under the law of the state where the ceremony was performed, it would not be annulled by courts of the parties’ domicile. Under most statutes, nonage does not itself constitute an absolute right to an annulment. The court may have discretion, and the marriage remains valid for all civil purposes until a judicial decree of annulment is issued. Where the marriage is void by statute, the court retains no discretion.
      7. Blood relationship; incestuous marriages are a marriage between:
        • parents and grandchildren,
        • grandparents and grandchildren,
        • brothers and sisters of half as well as whole blood,
        • uncles and nieces of half as well as whole blood, aunts, and nephews of half as   well as
        • whole blood, and
        • first cousins of half as well as whole blood.


A court may annul an incestuous marriage at the request of either party to the marriage even though the applicant may have knowingly entered the marriage arrangement. However, courts of one state cannot, at the suit of either party, annul a valid marriage under another state’s laws on the ground that the marriage is contrary to domicile state’s laws regarding blood relationship marriages.

      1. Mental incapacity: Courts examine whether any incapacity existed at the time of the marriage. If a court finds in the affirmative, the marriage may be annulled as void from the point of the judicial decree of nullity entered. There remains a split of authority on whether concealment of one’s mental incapacity warrants the marriage’s annulment. Where concealment does provide a ground for annulment, the following factors are considered: whether the affected spouse knew about the actual condition and its seriousness, an intent to deceive, and the absence of ratification by the innocent spouse having learned the facts.
      2. Temporary insanity: If temporary or periodic insanity is claimed, the condition at the time of marriage governs whether or not the capacity to marry was present. A marriage will not be annulled if entered into during a lucid interval. The degree of mental incapacity necessary to ground an annulment is incapacity sufficient to deprive a part of an understanding of marriage’s duties and relationship. Mere weakness of intellect remains insufficient.




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