Void And Voidable Marriage: Grounds For Annulment

Legal Definition of Marriage

Discuss whether the marriage is void or voidable and, if so, on what grounds.

According to Lord Penzance of Hyde v Hyde (1866) LR 1 PD 130, marriage can be demarcated as "a voluntary bond between men and women to eliminate everyone else throughout their lives." It discusses the legitimacy of Mormon's marriage. It is real in today’s time in the sense that the marriage has reached an agreement, is heterosexual, and must be monogamous. It doesn't have to be a lifetime anymore, but the law doesn't allow fixed-term contracts as legal marriages. Marriage differs from other contracts in that the terms are determined by the state, not the parties, and the partner cannot independently agree to terminate it. The Marriage Annulment Act of 1971 is a British law that defines good grounds for the dissolution of a marriage. Marriage was the first in British law to be specifically defined by court as marriage between a woman and a man in that act. Therefore, a marriage may be declared invalid if the partners are not male and female. The marriage requirement between a man and a woman was later repealed by the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act of 2013.

If a marriage is invalid or void, it may be declared null and void. The 1973 MCA applies to marriages that are annullable under Section 11 and marriages that are annullable under Section 12. In De Renville v De Renville, Lord Green defined a void marriage as something which is assumed to be never happened. A marriage is void if it falls under the prohibited blood relationship, that is, blood and intimacy, or if one of the spouses is under the age of 16 because one of the spouses is not legally able to marry. Also, if the parties continue to marry knowing that they have violated the form, the marriage is void. This can be demonstrated in Gehrels vs. Yagoub. A marriage is void unless it is annulled. A marriage may be dissolved if it did not begin because of the incapacity or wilful refusal of one of the spouses. For completion, regular and thorough sexual contact is required. However, a party cannot, on its own, refuse to receive an invalidation order. As Hirani v. Hirani shows, a marriage can be declared void if there is no consent or if there is coercion, error or mental disorder.

Marriage may or may not be annulled. If a marriage can be declared null and void, If the marriage is annulled by a court order, it will stay in force until the death of one or both of the parties. The commencement of an illegitimate marriage is null and void. After the death of one of the parties, any person with a reasonable interest may obtain an invalidity decision. While in theory, an annulment of marriage is void regardless of any official ruling, it is frequently necessary to clear up the initial uncertainty by having a legal judgement issued by the court that annuls the marriage.

Grounds for Declaring Marriage Null and Void

In order to obtain a writ of divorce, the sole basis for an indivisible breakup of the marriage must be the five facts specified in section 1(2) of the MCA 1973: adultery, act, desertion, mutual consent and two years of separation on the basis of the five facts. s1(1) Period of separation as specified in MCA 1973. Divorce dissolves the marriage relationship, whereas annulment simply dissolves the marriage. If an annulment is allowed, the parties are legally single and will not divorce. In other words, divorce is a family law act, such as breaking a contract. Divorce always occurs after marriage, but annulment admits only deficiencies that existed before marriage. However, applicants often alternate between the two treatments, as both lead to the dissolution of the marriage..

Hence the marriage of Sam and Chris is voidable on two grounds. Before discussing those grounds, this report discusses void and voidable marriages.

Void marriage- void marriages are null and void from the start and theoretically can be treated as if they never happened, so neither party needs to seek an annulment in court. However, it is almost always desirable for the parties to do so to provide evidence that they can remarry in the future if they so desire. A marriage that is initially void may be because one party is already married to the other, one party was under the age of consent at the time, or the law did not initially allow them to marry each other (i.e., if they were related by blood).

Voidable marriage

Avoidable marriage remains in effect until a judgment of annulment (cancellation) is issued. There are several grounds for declaring a marriage null and void. For example, if one of the parties knowingly refused to conclude the marriage, or if one of the parties was conceived by someone other than her husband during the marriage, then the parties gave valid consent, for example, because of a mental disorder, mistake or coercion. Did not provide There are other reasons, but this is the most common. For some reason, petitions must be filed within three years of marriage, so it's important to get a referral in advance to determine whether it applies to your particular situation.

Annulment or annulment known in the law falls into two categories: void marriage and void marriage.

Annulment Marriage is a marriage that never existed legally and therefore does not require an official statute of annulment. However, the parties to such a marriage can still choose a court order. The reason is that you can request the disposition of finances and property in the same way one would file for divorce. An invalid marriage is a marriage that is legal in all respects until an annulment is declared. The reasons for divorce are as follows.

• Marriage not consummated due to the incapacity of one of the parties
• that the marriage was not completed as a result of the other party's willful refusal to do so.
• Neither party has legally consented to him by coercion, error, insanity or otherwise.
• Either party was mentally ill during the marriage but was able to give legal consent.
• Defendant contracted a sexually transmitted disease during the marriage
• Defendant became pregnant during marriage by someone other than the plaintiff.

While these factors seem self-evident, the law is expanding, and courts must prove much more to convince them of the need for annulment. In addition to having to scrutinize each ground before deciding to annul a marriage, courts may prohibit a person from filing in certain circumstances (for example, when the applicant can be said to have consented to the circumstances). This is a very complex subject of law.

Prohibited Blood Relations and Age

Section 12of the 1973 Act; a marriage may be rescindable-

• if either party is incapable to consummate the marriage, or if either party wilfully denies to consummate the marriage, or if either party did not genuinely accord to the marriage, or
• if either party has been unable to consummate the marriage, or if either party wilful refuses to consummate the marriage, or if either party did not validly consent to the marriage, or the wife is expecting a baby from a man other than her husband

Non-consumption

According to Dr Lushington's D v A (1845) 163 ER 1039, the consummation of marriage involves "general and complete" sexual interaction, not "partial and incomplete" intercourse, which embraces erection and penetration but does not essentially lead to climax. You don't have to be pregnant, and it doesn't matter lawfully whether the husband is infertile or the female is infertile. Either party may request the revocation of the neutralization. The disability can be physical or psychological and should not avert contact with anyone other than your spouse. However, it must be permanent and irredeemable. The fact that a couple had successful sexual intercourse before marriage is irrelevant if they had a disability during the marriage. It's unclear how the law will evaluate a disability caused by a car accident between a church and a honeymoon hotel.

An annulment may or may not be granted. To have a marriage annulled, one or both parties must file a petition with a judge, and the petition can only be filed by one of the parties while they are still alive. The commencement of an illegitimate relationship is null and void. After the death of one of the parties, any person with a reasonable interest may obtain an invalidity decision. While in principle, an annulment marriage is invalid and null regardless of a formal decision, in reality a formal judgement is frequently necessary to clear up any lingering ambiguity. Finding on the base of discussed cases and laws, it is found that the marriage of Sam and Chris is voidable on the grounds of impotency of Sam and mental health issues (depression) of Chris that make their marriage voidable under the eyes of the law. Marriage of the opposite sex can be void if one of the parties does not enter into a contract because it cannot be contracted. A helpless husband or wife may apply for a divorce on her own powerless grounds if they were not aware of this at the time of marriage or if it was not unreasonable under any circumstances. Applicants complaining of erectile dysfunction must be able to prove that they are offended. In the case of annulment, the same-sex spouse cannot assert the grounds of a minor.

How would your answer differ, if at all, if Chris and Sam are same-sex civil partners?

The 2013 Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act repealed a law that previously banned same-sex couples from marrying. Previously, there was In this circumstance, the court cannot make a nullity judgement against the wishes of the defendant. this provision in the Marriage Relations Act of 1973, but the enforcement of the law made it possible for same-sex couples to marry. Before this law was enacted, the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 was passed, recognizing civil partnership as a legal obligation for same-sex couples. By decision of R. (Steinfeld) v. Secretary of State (2018), the 2019 Civic Partnerships (Heterosexual Couples) Regulations allowed members of heterosexual couples to form civic partnerships instead of marrying them.

For a marriage to be void, it indicates that:

1. A court order is not required to declare the marriage null and void.  
2. Anyone can apply for the annulment of a marriage.
3. An illegitimate child is a child born to a couple in the wrong marriage.  

To be declared voidable, a marriage must meet the following criteria:

1. A marriage can only be annulled by a court decision.
2. Divorce can only be filed by the married party.
3. An illegitimate child, A child, born of an illegitimate marriage is not an illegitimate child.

This is important because same-sex couples can, but opposite-sex couples cannot claim the lack of marriage completion as a basis for annulment. Once again, the logic behind this pitfall of British law lies in a full legal definition of what constitutes perfection. As a result, same-sex couples can marry under British law.. The only real difference between same-sex marriage and heterosexual marriage is that heterosexual couples have five reasons for divorce, while same-sex couples have four. However, the adoption of a law on "no negligence" should put same-sex and opposite-sex spouses on an absolute equal footing. Because the new law no longer allows couples to divorce without reason. As a result, it may have taken some time for the law to catch up, but it is slow but steady.

References

D v A (1845) (1845) 163 ER 1039

Gereis v Yagoub (1997) 1 FLR 854,

Hyde v Hyde [1866] Court of Probate and Divorce (Court of Probate and Divorce)

Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013

Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 1973