An annulment is more uncommon in Florida than a divorce. A recent appeal decided whether a court case should proceed as a divorce or an annulment. A Florida husband tried to avoid his obligation to divide his marital property and pay alimony to his wife by alleging in court that his marriage was a fraud because he never consummated it. How did the trial and appellate courts review his argument?
A Case of Annulment?
In the Florida case, a Husband testified he met his wife in 2000 when he attended a retreat. Twenty years later, he was re-introduced to his wife by a colleague. They traveled to Colombia and shared a residence. He argued that he never proposed to his wife, they just mutually agreed to marry. He claimed that all he wanted a companion as he grew older.
At trial he also testified that he never consummated the marriage. He also claimed that he had never seen her naked, didn’t know her bra size or any intimate detail about her body. He testified that she only married him to obtain legal status.
Also during the trial, the wife admitted she never received an engagement ring, but said she signed a prenuptial agreement, that they had consummated the marriage, and had intercourse on several occasions, but only in the dark. Accordingly, she had never visually inspected his body.
The husband’s girlfriend testified he told her he was married and was in process of divorcing. Based on those facts testified to at the trial court found it was a real marriage, that they did have sex, and the case could not proceed as an annulment. The husband appealed.
Florida Annulments
I’ve written about divorce and annulment in Florida before. In Florida, the legal term for ending a marriage is “dissolution of marriage,” not “divorce.” The process is initiated by filing a petition for dissolution of marriage. The term “divorce” is not used in the Florida Statutes.
There are different types of dissolution of marriage in Florida, depending on the circumstances, such as whether there are children, marital property, or if the dissolution is simplified. A judgment of dissolution of marriage is how a spouse returns to “the status of being single and unmarried.”
Annulments are different. An annulment in Florida is a procedure that declares a marriage null and void, as if it never existed. The grounds for annulment in Florida include bigamy, fraud, duress, mental incapacity, and incestuous relationships.
Because Florida is one of the handful of states that has no annulment statute, annulments in Florida are purely a question of common law, decided pursuant to the inherent equitable powers of the circuit court.
The historical common law “impediments” to marriage traditionally fell into two general categories: lack of consent and lack of capacity.
Lack of consent would include, for example, people who are related within certain degrees, and minors without parental consent. Lack of capacity includes marriages involving fraud, mental illness, sham marriages, and shotgun weddings.
That is where consummating the marriage comes in. It is established law in Florida that someone who has become a party to a wedding ceremony by fraud of the other party can secure an annulment if the marriage has not been completed by sexual intercourse.
The Appeal
On appeal, it was found that the trial court record contained ample evidence supporting the holding that the parties consummated their marriage, and the wife did not enter the marriage to commit fraud.
Additionally, in this case no asserted ground or evidence justified a decree of annulment in favor of the husband.
Here the parties entered into a valid marriage contract. The evidence did not establish the existence of any of the grounds for annulment. So, the appellate court ruled the petition was properly denied.
The written decision is available here.
