Grounds for Marriage Termination: Nullity, Void, or Voidable Marriage

    A  Nullity of marriage, Void marriage, and a Voidable marriage are all different. Here is a brief summary on how to look these categories, and what to do regarding them.

    First, a marriage is void in two cases, when it involves bigamy or incest. This means the marriage in itself is void. Nobody needs to go to court to establish that. Although it would be good to have that kind of record, but overall, it is void. When filling out petition form in FL-100, there is a section that asks what the grounds are to terminate the marriage, and some of the grounds are listed, and they're exclusive. This means, whatever grounds are listed, those are the grounds to nullify the marriage. 

    When the marriage is voidable, this means the marriage is valid until proven otherwise. And the person who is trying to prove it should be voided needs to file the motion. 

    The petition in itself is not enough. It's just checking off the grounds for voidable marriage, which can be an unsound mind, fraud, force, physical incapacity, believing that the spouse is deceased, etc. 

    All of these are grounds that do not happen automatically. Unless we are dealing with a default judgment, which is totally a different topic. 

    Let's say the grounds for divorce indicated are fraud, and you check it off on the FL-100 and sign it. Nothing will happen unless you file a motion and ask the court to determine, and prove, why the marriage was fraudulent. Even then the court may or may not determine that the marriage is nullified. 


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