A lawsuit filed in court seeking to dissolve a marriage on the ground that the marriage, while valid when entered into, is voidable by court order because a party establishes the existence of specific facts to prove grounds provided by New York’s Domestic Relations Law. This is different from a “void marriage,” which is a marriage that may be declared void because it was never valid.
When a marriage is annulled, the record of the marriage and annulment remain, but the parties may consider themselves to have not been married.
Minor Children: Both parties to the annulled marriage remain responsible for any minor children they conceived during the marriage. A court has the authority to make provisions for custody, visitation and support of minor children.
Division of Property: A judge may make all necessary orders, just as in a divorce, to distribute property fairly between the parties and may order spousal maintenance, just as if the action were for a divorce.
There is little practical difference between an annulment and a divorce:
An order of annulment means that one party has established that the marriage is not legally valid. A divorce, on the other hand, ends a legally valid marriage;
The grounds for annulments are more difficult to establish than grounds for divorce. A New York court can grant a divorce on the written or sworn testimony of one party alone without a trial. While an annulment by statue requires a trial or inquest before a judge.
There are five grounds upon which a party to a marriage may seek to have the marriage annulled:
Spouse under age of consent—If either or both parties to a marriage are under 18, that party, one of his or her parents or guardian (or any other person the court allows) may seek to have the marriage annulled. The right to seek annulment on this ground ceases once the spouse at issue has turned 18. Annulment on this ground is granted at the discretion of the court considering all the circumstances of the marriage.
Spouse was incapable of consenting to the marriage due to mental incapacity—If a party to a marriage is mentally ill or otherwise mentally incapacitated and was unable to give informed consent to the marriage, any relative with an interest in seeing the marriage annulled may do so while either spouse is alive.
Spouse has physical incapacity that makes that person unable to have sexual intercourse—An action for annulment may be brought by either party before five years have elapsed from the date of marriage if one party has a continuing physical incapacity that causes that person to be unable to have sexual intercourse. The action may be brought by the non-impaired person, or even the impaired person, so long as that person did not know of his or her incapacity at the time of the marriage.
Consent for the marriage was obtained by force, duress, or fraud—An action for annulment may be brought by a party to a marriage who alleges that his or her consent to the marriage was obtained by force, duress, or fraud. Examples of fraudulent marriages include:
Marrying to obtain immigration status (green card);
Claiming to be pregnant to entice someone to marry;
Claiming you want to have children when you really don’t.
Spouse becomes incurably mentally ill for a period of five years or more—An action for annulment may be brought by either party to a marriage or anyone acting on his or her behalf where one party to the marriage has become incurably mentally ill, and the illness has persisted for five years or more.
