nullity of marriage
nullity of marriage,
in law, an unlawful marriage that is either void or voidable because of conditions existing at the time of the marriage. A bigamous or incestuous marriage, for example, is void, and there is no need to bring a suit to obtain a decreedecree,in law, decision of a suit in a court of equity. It is the counterpart in equity of the judgment in a court of law, although in those jurisdictions where law and equity have merged, judgment is sometimes used to include both.
..... Click the link for more information. declaring it void. However, a decree is necessary to annul voidable marriages. Grounds, generally specified by statute, include fraud or duress preventing legal consent to the marriage and sexual impotence of one spouse that existed at the time the marriage was contracted and that was unknown to the other spouse. The results of nullity of marriage are different from those of divorcedivorce,
partial or total dissolution of a marriage by the judgment of a court. Partial dissolution is a divorce "from bed and board," a decree of judicial separation, leaving the parties officially married while forbidding cohabitation.
..... Click the link for more information. . A decree of nullity declares, in effect, that the parties never were married, and at one time it absolved them from all obligations to each other. Today, however, statutes in some states have mitigated the results of annulment, e.g., by making children of the void marriage legitimate and by permitting alimony. See husband and wifehusband and wife,
the legal aspects of the married state (for the sociological aspects, see marriage). The Marriage Contract
Marriage is a contractual relationship between a man and a woman that vests the parties with a new legal status.
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