Requirements for Annulments in Texas

An annulment is a legal process for ending a marriage. Unlike a divorce, an annulment is based on how the marriage began. A divorce ends a marriage that was legally valid. An annulment ends a marriage that was not legally valid in the first place. Annulments are only available in certain cases. Texas allows annulments in seven situations. Each one has specific requirements. Some of them have strict time limits.

A lawsuit seeking an annulment is also different from a suit to declare a marriage void. If your case is eligible for an annulment, you have a choice. You may ask a judge to declare that your marriage is over, or you and your spouse may decide to remain married. A “void” marriage was never valid under Texas law and can never be valid.  

Texas law allows annulments in the following situations: 

• A spouse is under the age of 18. 

• A spouse was under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. 

• A spouse is impotent. 

• The marriage involved fraud, duress, or force. 

• A spouse was not mentally capable of consenting to marriage. 

• A spouse concealed their divorce. 

• The marriage took place less than 72 hours after the spouses got their marriage license. 

This article explains the requirements for annulling a marriage based on each of these grounds. 

To get an annulment in a Texas court, you or your spouse must meet one of the following criteria: 

• Your marriage took place in Texas; or 

• Texas is the permanent home for one or both of you. 

The “petitioner” is the spouse who files the petition for annulment. The other spouse is the “respondent.” 

You may file a petition for annulment in the county where you got married or where one or both of you live. The filing fee varies from county to county. If you are eligible for a fee waiver, it will cost you nothing. 

The courts that handle divorce cases also handle annulments. District courts handle family law cases in most Texas counties. Your local district clerk’s office can tell you about specific filing requirements. 

Once you have filed the petition for an annulment, you have to serve the papers on your spouse. A constable, sheriff, or private process server may do this. Your spouse may also sign a waiver of service. 

A court may annul a marriage when all the following circumstances apply: 

• A spouse was at least 16 years old but less than 18 when they married. 

• That spouse’s parents did not consent to the marriage. They also did not have a court order allowing them to get married without parental consent. 

• A parent, guardian, or other authorized person is filing the annulment petition. 

• The petitioner files within 90 days of the marriage. 

An underage spouse may file the petition themselves if they turn 18 during the 90-day period. They may not get an annulment after ninety days. 

A marriage under these circumstances is not automatically invalid under Texas law. A judge can decide whether to grant an annulment. State law says that a judge should consider “the pertinent facts” bout the spouses, “including whether the female is pregnant.” 

An intoxicated person cannot give consent to many activities, including marriage. A person can get an annulment based on impairment by alcohol or drugs. They must be able to show the following to the court: 

• They were too impaired at the time of the marriage to consent. 

• They have not acted like they were married since the effects of the alcohol or drugs wore off. 

The second point is very important. You must show the court that you would never have gotten married if you had not been drunk or high. A court will not grant an annulment if you agreed to live with your spouse after you sobered up or if you willingly acted like a married couple. 

“Impotence” means the inability to have sexual intercourse. A court can annul the marriage if a spouse can demonstrate the following: 

• A spouse was impotent at the time of the marriage. 

• The impotence is permanent. They have not consummated the marriage, and they will not be able to do so. 

• The petitioner did not know about the impotence when they got married. 

• The petitioner has not voluntarily lived with their spouse since learning about the impotence. 

The petitioner is telling the court that they would not have gotten married if they knew about the impotence. This is why they must not have lived together after discovering the impotence. 

Either spouse can be the petitioner in this kind of annulment. They can ask for an annulment because of their spouse’s impotence or because of their own impotence. 

Both spouses must give voluntary, knowing consent to marriage. The use of “fraud, duress, or force” can make a marriage legally invalid. This could involve actions by the other spouse, another person, or a group of people. 

• “Fraud” involves lying about, withholding, or hiding important information. It must be information that might have changed the petitioner’s decision to get married. 

• “Duress” consists of threats or other kinds of pressure. This could include threats of violence. The petitioner must have believed that they had to get married to avoid harm. 

• “Force” could involve actual physical force or the threat of immediate injury. 

A petitioner must show that they only got married because of fraud, duress, or force. A court will not grant an annulment if a petitioner voluntarily lived with their spouse after the marriage began. 

In one Texas court case, a husband got an annulment based on fraud around 2010. He argued that his wife misrepresented her intentions. She told him she loved him and wanted to marry and have children. After getting married, she applied for immigration benefits as the wife of a U.S. citizen. She received a green card and then filed for divorce. The husband asked for an annulment instead. The court agreed with the husband that she misrepresented essential facts. 

A person must have the legal capacity to consent to marriage at the time they get married. A person can get an annulment if they were too drunk to consent. Intoxication is only one example of a condition in which a person cannot consent to something like marriage. Texas allows annulments when a person did not have the mental capacity: 

• To consent to get married; or 

• To understand what the marriage ceremony meant. 

Conditions that may cause a person to be unable to consent to marriage include the following: 

• Traumatic brain injuries 

• Severe learning disabilities 

• Severe mental illness 

• The aftermath of a stroke 

• Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia 

In some cases, a person might not be able to consent at the time they got married because of a temporary condition. That person could file their own annulment petition once they have recovered. In most cases, though, a person who lacked the mental capacity to consent to marriage also lacks the capacity to file a lawsuit. Someone else, such as a court-appointed guardian, must file the petition for them. 

The other spouse may petition to annul the marriage as well. They must show that: 

• They did not know about the lack of capacity at the time of the marriage; and 

• They have not lived with their spouse since learning of it. 

A person with a court-appointed guardian can get married if the guardian consents. A recent example of an annulment based on a lack of mental capacity involved a person who was under a guardian’s care. The case was not complicated. The court that had appointed the guardian ruled in early 2019 that the person had no ability to care for himself or consent to marriage. Without the guardian’s knowledge or consent, he got married a few weeks later. The guardian petitioned for an annulment, and the court granted it. 

A spouse may get an annulment if the following conditions apply: 

• Their spouse got a divorce from a third person less than 30 days before marrying the petitioner. 

• The petitioner did not know about the earlier divorce when they got married. 

• The respondent made some effort to hide the earlier divorce. 

• The petitioner has not lived with the respondent since learning about the divorce. 

• The petitioner files suit within one year of the marriage. 

This ground for annulment is like the one based on fraud, but with a few important differences. It is only available for a concealed divorce shortly before the marriage. It is not available once one year has passed. If a person learns that their spouse hid this kind of divorce from them more than a year after their wedding, they cannot get this kind of annulment. They might still be able to claim an annulment based on fraud, though. 

A 2009 Texas court decision dealt with the two kinds of annulments. A husband had gotten an annulment based on fraud after learning that his wife had concealed five prior marriages and divorces. The wife argued that the one-year deadline for a concealed divorce should apply. The court disagreed. It found that hiding that many divorces was serious enough to meet the requirements for a fraud-based annulment. 

Texas law requires most people to wait 72 hours after getting a marriage license to get married. Exceptions to this requirement include the following: 

• Active-duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces 

• Employees and civilian contractors of the U.S. Department of Defense 

• People who get a court order waiving the 72-hour waiting period 

• People who complete a “premarital education course” approved by the state 

If a marriage ceremony took place during that 72-hour period, and neither spouse belongs to any of the above groups, either of them may petition for an annulment. They must file the petition within 30 days of getting married.