20-89.1 - Suit to annul marriage. - Virginia Statutes

§ 20-89.1. Suit to annul marriage.

(a) When a marriage is alleged to be void or voidable for any of the causesmentioned in §§ 20-13, 20-38.1, 20-45.1 or by virtue of fraud or duress,either party may institute a suit for annulling the same; and upon proof ofthe nullity of the marriage, it shall be decreed void by a decree ofannulment.

(b) In the case of natural or incurable impotency of body existing at thetime of entering into the marriage contract, or when, prior to the marriage,either party, without the knowledge of the other, had been convicted of afelony, or when, at the time of the marriage, the wife, without the knowledgeof the husband, was with child by some person other than the husband, orwhere the husband, without knowledge of the wife, had fathered a child bornto a woman other than the wife within ten months after the date of thesolemnization of the marriage, or where, prior to the marriage, either partyhad been, without the knowledge of the other, a prostitute, a decree ofannulment may be entered upon proof, on complaint of the party aggrieved.

(c) No annulment for a marriage alleged to be void or voidable undersubsection (b) of § 20-45.1, subsection (b) of this section or by virtue offraud or duress shall be decreed if it appears that the party applying forsuch annulment has cohabited with the other after knowledge of the factsgiving rise to what otherwise would have been grounds for annulment; and, inno event shall any such decree be entered if the parties had been married fora period of two years prior to the institution of such suit for annulment.

(d) A party who, at the time of such marriage as is mentioned in § 20-48 or §20-49, was capable of consenting with a party not so capable, shall not bepermitted to institute a suit for the purpose of annulling such marriage.

(1975, c. 644; 1976, c. 356.)