An annulment in New York involves a legal action which seeks to declare a marriage invalid or void pursuant to an order by a Supreme Court Judge. An annulment eliminates the marriage from ever having taken place.
A divorce involves a marriage that has failed. An annulment involves returning each of the parents back to being single and never having been married.
The grounds for annulments in New York are:
- One of the parties to the marriage was under the age of 18 at the time of the marriage.
- One of the spouses was unable to have sexual intercourse during the course of the marriage.
- One of the spouses was mentally ill.
- The marriage was obtained by duress, coercion or fraud.
- One of the spouses was unable to consent to the marriage due to mental incapacity.
Annulments And Children
In the state of New York an annulment creates a situation where the marriage is made void. However, a void marriage does not impact on the legitimacy of children who were born during the course of the party’s marriage. Children born to parents who are married, even if the marriage is annulled, are considered heirs of the marriage and will inherit from the parents of the marriage.
An annulment also has no impact on who gets custody or issues involving child support. Even when a marriage is annulled, the court will presume both parents are the actual biological parents of the child was born during the course of the marriage.
Elliot S. Schlissel is an attorney practicing marital and family law for more than 45 years. He can be reached at elliot@sdnylaw.com and 516-561-6645.
