Civil Nullity

Ms Minnie Mouse

Have spent some (or rather considerably more than I intended to!) time looking through past threads on this site. In particular, relating to divorce (DIY vs professional services). One comment that has come up a couple of times is for parties to ensure that Civil Nullity is not an option, prior to commencing Divorce proceedings.

From what I can glean, the criteria for a marriage to be 'voidable' are fairly clear cut and one would reasonably assume that most people would be aware if their marriage was voidable. This said, I appreciate that the information available on t'interweb isn't always what it seems.

Have there been any interesting cases or unusual circumstances where a marriage has been declared void?

This is literally as a matter of interest!

Delancey

Only case I recall was where the man was found to have been gay at the time of the marriage.
I know someone who obtained a civil annulment ( long drawn out and very expensive ) where his wife was shown to be mentally ill in some shape or form.

Ms Minnie Mouse

Thanks for your reply.

I suppose one of the interesting things is that many of us (in my experience anyway) have 'a friend of a friend' who had their marriage annulled. The implication being that this is fairly commonplace, however, based on the rules involved it would be hard to imagine such a proliferation of annulled marriages (or maybe I'm in a little naive bubble - in which case...!).

Jo King

Ms Minnie Mouse wrote: »

Have spent some (or rather considerably more than I intended to!) time looking through past threads on this site. In particular, relating to divorce (DIY vs professional services). One comment that has come up a couple of times is for parties to ensure that Civil Nullity is not an option, prior to commencing Divorce proceedings.

From what I can glean, the criteria for a marriage to be 'voidable' are fairly clear cut and one would reasonably assume that most people would be aware if their marriage was voidable. This said, I appreciate that the information available on t'interweb isn't always what it seems.

Have there been any interesting cases or unusual circumstances where a marriage has been declared void?

This is literally as a matter of interest!

The courts are very reluctant to grant nullity since divorce came in. With nullity there is no maintenance, no succession rights and any children are rendered illegitimate.

Delancey

Jo King wrote: »

The courts are very reluctant to grant nullity since divorce came in. With nullity there is no maintenance, no succession rights and any children are rendered illegitimate.

Fair point , I should have made clear the person I know got their annulment years before the introduction of divorce.

Peregrinus

Yup, back when there was no divorce nullity was the only legal proceeding which would allow a person to remarry. Thus there was considerable pressure on the courts to widen the traditional categories of nullity, and this was added to because the Catholic marriage tribunals were widening the grounds on which they would grant church annulments to take account of advances in psychology, etc.

Since the introduction of divorce there have been few (if any) civil annulments, and the courts look with disfavour on them, since the assumption is that one party is trying to evade the redistribution of property, income etc that follows on marriage breakdown when you get either a divorce or a civil separation.

Victor

Jo King wrote: »

any children are rendered illegitimate.

Illegitimacy no longer exists as a legal concept.

Milk & Honey

Victor wrote: »

Illegitimacy no longer exists as a legal concept.

Illegitimacy certainly does exist as a legal concept. It is a very significant legal concept. E.G. only illegitimate children or orphans can be adopted.

Delancey

My understanding is the Status of Children Act abolished the leagl concept of Illegitimacy , effectively such a status is no longer recognised in law ?

234

I thought that was only for succession rights?

Peregrinus

Most of the distinction between marital and non-marital children were eliminated by the 1987 Act, and the term "illegitimate" disappeared from Irish law at the same time.

But a few differences of treatment do remain. As Milk and Honey noted, a marital child cannot be placed for adoption (unless it has been orphaned). There's no presumption of paternity when a child is born to unmarried partners. And, even where paternity is shown, this doesn't automatically make the father a joint guardian of the child, as would be the case if the couple were married.

RangeR

I know someone who got an annullement, years after they got married, after having many kids, well before divorce came in.

It was a bogus case and he only got it because he knew the right people. She could do nothing to stop it and wasn't given a say.

Because I'm not naming him, I can call him a pr!ck.

Kosseegan

Delancey wrote: »

My understanding is the Status of Children Act abolished the leagl concept of Illegitimacy , effectively such a status is no longer recognised in law ?

Your understanding is wrong. The 1987 Act removed discrimination against illegitimate children but did not abolish the concept of illegitimacy. The Legitimacy Act of 1931 remains in force.