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Although it is difficult to obtain an annulment in Pennsylvania, the Law Offices of Stacy E. Schwarz has successfully obtained annulments for clients who want their marriages to be declared invalid and thus deemed as if the parties never married.
A marriage can be declared invalid by either party if his or her conduct provides the basis for annulment. Pennsylvania divorce law distinguishes two types of marriages that can be annulled – those that are void from their inception and those which are voidable. A marriage can be terminated by annulment if the marriage is considered void and thus invalid from its inception. The following circumstances surrounding marriages would constitute grounds for annulment and thus be void as long as there is no cohabitation after learning of the “impediment” to the marriage:
1) One person was at the time of the purported marriage validly married to another; or
2) Parties to such marriage are related within certain degrees of consanguinity. For example, you cannot marry certain relatives such as your mother, your father, your first aunt, your first uncle, your sibling, your child, your grandchild and your first cousin; or
3) Either party was incapable of consenting by reason of insanity or mental disorder or otherwise lacked the capacity or intention to enter the marriage; or
4) When either party to a purported common law marriage was under 18 years of age.
The following marriages can be valid but voidable from inception and thus constitute grounds for annulment:
1) One party is under age 16 and did not have the express approval of the court to marry; or
2) Either party was age 16 0r 17 and did not have parental consent nor authority from the court to marry, and the marriage was not subsequently approved upon reaching age 18 as long as the action for annulment is commenced within 60 days after the marriage ceremony; or
3) A party was intoxicated by alcohol or drugs and an action for annulment is commenced within 60 days after the marriage ceremony; or
4) “Natural and incurable” impotence was not known to the other party prior to the marriage; or
5) A party married under the influence of fraud, duress, coercion or force and there was no voluntary cohabitation after knowledge of the fraud or release from the effects of fraud, duress, coercion or force.
Although not an easy decree to obtain, our Pennsylvania family law attorney has successfully had marriages annulled and carefully deciphers whether an annulment is the proper legal action to take or whether circumstances of the marriage do not rise to the level which would constitute grounds and thus result in a Decree of Annulment. Contact us for a consultation.
