Nullity

You can get a nullity, rather than a dissolution, when your marriage is found to be void or voidable. A marriage is void or voidable in the following situations:

1. Incest and bigamy;

2. The petitioner is under age 18;

3. A current spouse mistakenly believed to be deceased;

4. Unsound mind;

5. Fraud;

6. Force; and

7. Physical incapacity--unable to engage in oral copulation.

One of these grounds must have existed at the time of the marriage.

The most common reason for a nullity is fraud. That means that a spouse's consent to marriage was obtained by fraud, unless they freely cohabitated with the other spouse as husband and wife, with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud. The fraud most directly affect the purpose of the party deceived into entering the marriage.