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Annulment is the legal process of declaring a marriage invalid, which is different than a divorce, while each state has laws prohibiting certain types of marriage. Grounds for annulment in Michigan include being underage, legally insane, physically incapable of consummating the marriage, and marriage by force or fraud.
Michigan annulment and prohibited marriage laws banned same-sex marriage, although same-sex unions performed during the brief time it was legal in Michigan were recognized by the federal government. In 2015, however, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges, finding that denial of marriage to same-sex couples and failure to acknowledge the marriages of same-sex couples from other states constituted a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection guarantees. Since that time same-sex marriage has been available in Michigan and all other states.
The following chart highlights Michigan's annulment and prohibited marriage laws. See Marriage Law Overview to learn more.
| Code Sections | 552.34, et seq.; 551.1 et seq.; 552.29-.30 |
| Grounds for Annulment | Underage; insanity; idiocy; physical incapacity to consummate; force or fraud |
| Time Limits for Obtaining Annulment | Underage: Unless they freely cohabit upon reaching majority; Incapacity: 2 years from marriage; Lunatic: Unless upon restoration of reason, they freely cohabit; Force or fraud: Unless there is voluntary cohabitation prior to commencement of suit |
| Legitimacy of Children | Issue of marriage void for nonage or bigamy or insanity are legitimate. |
| Prohibited Marriages | Bigamous; those with syphilis or gonorrhea (felony); marriage between ancestors or descendants, brother and sister (blood or affinity), aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, first cousins |
Note: State laws are constantly changing -- contact a Michigan family law attorney or conduct your own legal research to verify the state law(s) you are researching.
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