Legal Question in Family Law in Alabama

Re: Can marriage be annuled or will I have to file for divorce

Few cases actually qualify for an annulment and you have just missed an important deadline (six months) for filing on three of the most common grounds. I would only recommend pursuing an annulment for religious reasons.

� 93-7-3. Causes for annulment of marriages

A marriage may be annulled for any one of the following causes existing at the time of the marriage ceremony, to wit:

(a) Incurable impotency.

(b) Insanity or idiocy of either or both parties. Action of an insane spouse may be brought by guardian or in the absence thereof by next friend, provided suit be brought within six (6) months after marriage.

(c) Failure to comply with the provisions of Sections 93-1-5 through 93-1-9 when any marriage affected by such failure has not been followed by cohabitation.

Or, in the absence of ratification:

(d) When either of the parties to a marriage shall be incapable, from want of age or understanding, of consenting to any marriage, or shall be incapable from physical causes of entering into the marriage state, or where the consent of either party shall have been obtained by force or fraud, the marriage shall be void from the time its nullity shall be declared by a court of competent jurisdiction.

(e) Pregnancy of the wife by another person, if the husband did not know of such pregnancy.

Suits for annulment under subsections (d) and (e) shall be brought within six (6) months after the ground therefor is or should be discovered, and not thereafter.

The causes for annulment of marriage set forth in this section are intended to be new remedies and shall in no way affect the causes for divorce declared elsewhere to be the law of the State of Mississippi as they presently exist or as they may from time to time be amended.