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What are grounds to annul a marriage?

There are two situations in which you can annul your marriage in New York.

One occurs when circumstances have made your marriage voidable, even though it may have been valid at first.

The other is when your marriage was never valid in the first place.

There are grounds to annul a marriage pertaining to either situation. According to the New York State Senate, parties to the marriage can maintain the annulment action, and in some cases, third parties can do so on the behalf of you or your spouse.

Actions for annulling a voidable marriage

A marriage can become voidable on grounds of incurable mental illness or physical incapacity for the marriage state on the part of either you or your spouse.

In either case, it is important that the condition rendering the marriage voidable be incurable.

Your spouse must be mentally ill for at least five years before you can take annulment action, but you can only take annulment action on the grounds of physical incapacity for up to five years after your marriage began.

Declaring nullity for a void marriage

In these cases, the marriage was never valid in the first place.

The annulment simply recognizes this.

Your marriage may be void if either you or your spouse gave consent to the marriage under duress or because of fraud.

Furthermore, New York has an age of consent that people must attain before getting married. Your marriage is void if either you or your spouse was under the age of consent at the time you married.

A marriage is also void if one of the spouses lacks the mental capacity to have consented to the marriage or one spouse is still married to a previous partner who is still living.

In the latter two cases, third parties can maintain annulment actions.

 

If you believe that you qualify for an annulment, contact Bashian P.C.

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