The declaration of the invalidity of a marriage
is commonly referred to as an annulment of a marriage.
Montana law allows that a marriage may be declared
invalid if specific circumstances concerning the
marriage are shown to exist. As a general rule,
a marriage can be declared invalid if the circumstances
of the consent to enter a marriage are shown to be
lacking. A Montana court can also declare a marriage
to be invalid if the marriage is prohibited by law.
If one party to a marriage lacks consent, or lacks
the ability to consent to the marriage at the time
that the marriage occurred, a court may declare a
marriage invalid. A person may lack the ability to
consent to a marriage because of mental incapacity
or illness or if the person is under the influence
of an incapacitating substances at the time of the
marriage. A person also lacks consent if he or she
was induced to enter into a marriage by force or
duress or by fraud.
If a person lacks the physical capacity to consummate
the marriage by sexual intercourse, and at the time
that the marriage was entered into, the other party
did not know of the incapacity, the marriage may
also be declared invalid.
If a person is under 16 years of age, or if a person
was 16 or 17 years of age and that person did not
have the consent of the party's parents or the approval
of a district court judge the appropriate consent
to bind a person to marriage is also lacking.
A marriage is prohibited under Montana law if:
- One of the parties is presently married to someone
else;
- The parties are brother and a sister, or otherwise
related by the half or the whole blood, or the
parties are first cousins;
- The parties are related as an uncle and a niece
or between an aunt and a nephew; or,
- The marriage is between persons of the same sex.
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