When Can You Seek Annulment of a Marriage in Maryland?

Divorce is the most common way to legally dissolve a marriage, but it is not always the only way. In some cases, a person may seek an annulment of their marriage. Annulment is essentially a judicial declaration that the marriage itself is prohibited or invalid as a matter of law. In this sense, annulment does not “dissolve” a marriage in the manner as a divorce; from a legal standpoint it is as if the marriage never existed.

Void vs. Voidable Marriage

When we talk about annulments, we are actually speaking about two separate concepts — void marriages and voidable marriages. A void marriage can also be thought of as a prohibited marriage in that it was illegal from the beginning. Anyone, not just the parties to the marriage, can challenge a void marriage. A voidable marriage, in contrast, suffers from some legal defect, but unless one of the parties actually seeks an annulment, the marriage can remain valid.

The most common grounds for annulling a void marriage in Maryland include:

• Bigamy, i.e., one or both spouses was already legally married to someone else at the time of the void marriage.
• The spouses are closely related to each other by blood, e.g., they are siblings or one spouse is the parent or grandparent of the other.
• Either spouse lacked the mental competency to enter into the marriage.

With respect to voidable marriages, a spouse may seek an annulment for the following additional reasons:

• Either spouse was under the age of 18 at the time of the marriage; however, a marriage is still valid if a spouse was at least 16 and had parental consent, or 15 and pregnant and had parental consent.
• Either spouse was unable to physically consummate the marriage.
• Either party lacked the understanding to consent to marriage or was forced into giving consent–think a literal “shotgun wedding.”
• A spouse procured the marriage by fraud. The fraud itself must relate to an essential element of the marriage, such as lying about paternity of a child. Merely lying to a prospective spouse, say about finances, is not enough to annul a marriage for fraud.
• The marriage ceremony was performed by someone who lacked the legal authority to do so.

What Happens if a Maryland Court Grants an Annulment?

From a legal standpoint, annulment means the marriage never happened. But of course, there are still practical issues to consider, such as the division of property, child custody, and alimony and child support. All of these issues must still be resolved by the court just as if the parties had sought a divorce. In addition, annulment does not automatically modify paternity. In other words, unless a father can prove the children born during the later-annulled marriage were not his own, he is still on the hook for paying child support.

Contact Charles County, Maryland, Family Law Attorney Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions contact our office to speak to an experienced lawyer at (301) 705-5253.