Annulment of a Marriage

Annulment of marriage is not governed by statute or rule. It is a common law action in equity to terminate a void or voidable marriage.

Grounds for an A marriage annulment. A marriage may be annulled for any cause that has prevented the parties from contracting a valid marriage. The invalidity of a marriage may arise from either:
 A lack of legal capacity to contract, or a statutory prohibition against the type of marriage in question.
 A lack of mental capacity to contract
 A lack of actual consent to the contract
 A consent wrongfully procured by force, duress, fraud or concealment.
 A lack of physical capacity to consummate

No annulment after voidable marriage is ratified: On ratified, a voidable marriage may not be annulled, unless a party ratifying the marriage shows he or she was not aware of all the material fact and therefore could not have knowingly waived his or her rights. For example, a husband was equitably estopped from raising validity of parties’ marriage, and annulment of marriage was improper, regardless of whether parties’ Mexican marriage was void; parties cohabitated and held themselves out to family, friends and public as married for approximately 30 years, bore and raised two children within that time, held property as tenants in common, and there was not allegation by either party that marriage was void until wife had made her claim for alimony in divorce proceeding. A marriage induced by fraud or deceit may be annulled if the marriage has not been consummated. Marriage that has been consummated cannot be annulled for fraud. Marriage that had been consummated could not be annulled for fraud, although wife had lied about her previous marriages and husband testified that he would not have married wife had he been aware of her actual marriage history.

Petitioner must be innocent party: Only the innocent party may seek an annulment. For example in a previously case in Florida the trial court had jurisdiction to declare nullity of void marriage or to declare that voidable marriage is annulled; however, the wife could not be accorded status of innocent spouse as she had learned that her marriage was not valid, yet she did nothing for nine years.

Equitable alimony: The trial court may award equitable financial support to a putative spouse in a void or voidable marriage. In one example, the marriage was not valid because the putative husband had not finalized his dissolution of marriage from his fourth wife before entering in to the marriage. The alimony award was needed to provide shelter for the wife and child. In another example, the appellate court affirmed an award of permanent alimony to a wife of a 20-year marriage that was annulled because the husband has already marriage and the wife was not aware of this fact.

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