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Annulments

  • 12-03-2012 10:39pm
    #1
    MariMel
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 323 ✭✭


    I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and we were chatting about annulments and it got me thinking about a few things which neither of us knew the answers to.
    If someone gets an annulment....does the other partner lose the ability to go after a share of assets? eg house or plot which was owned by one side prior to the marriage. Does an annulment only mean that in the eyes of the church the marriage did not exist or would the courts take an annulment into consideration should a dispute arise.
    I suppose I was surprised during this conversation to realise just how many people we knew had gone through annulments, from those married days, to those married years and years with children.


Comments

  • #2
    coylemj
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,626 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    A church annulment has no effect in civil law so property and succession rights are not affected. Bear in mind that when people get married in a Catholic church, they are contracting both a religious and civil marriage, the annulment applies only to the religious aspect of the marriage.

    The only practical effect of a church annullment is that each of the parties is considered to be single again in the eyes of the Catholic church so each of them is free to marry in a Catholic church again but they are still married to each other in the eyes of the state.


  • #3
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    A church annulment has no legal signficance. Generally, though, you can't get a church annulment (as in, the church won't grant you one) unless you have already obtained a civil divorce or a civil nullity decree.

    Civil nullity is rare nowadays, though of course people used to try for it more frequently back in the days when divorce was not available. From memory, the various property adjustment orders, etc, which are available on divorce are not available on nullity (for constitutional reasons) so the less-well-off partner could be badly affected if there is a nullity decree ratther than a divorce decree. But state nullity decrees were always granted on a very restrictive basis, and it would require unusual facts before you could hope to get one. If more than a handful have been granted since divorce was introduced, I would be very surprised.


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