I have been married for almost 16 years and now want a divorce. I recently discovered that my spouses divorce from a previous marriage had not been validated until three years after we were married. Would I be able to get an annulment?

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Originally Posted by booberry23

I have been married for almost 16 years and now want a divorce. I recently discovered that my spouses divorce from a previous marriage had not been validated until three years after we were married. Would I be able to get an annulment?

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How recent was this discovery ? And how exactly did you find this out ?

I would definitely check into that as He could not be legally married to 2 women at the same time. So that would have made his 2nd marriage (you) Null and void. I'm no lawyer but I do understand the general principles of law and that would make sense to me. Good luck. :-)

Speaking on the subject of California law (and I doubt any state has a significantly different rule), I can assure you definitely do have grounds to obtain a nullity of your marriage. In California your marriage would be considered void from the outset.

The consequence of the marriage being void when it comes to a division of marital property, debt allocation, spousal support and attorney fees is what is interesting and I'm sure there are variations from state to state on this.

Because of the bigamous nature of your marriage your wife may be barred from ever receiving spousal support, attorney fees or an equal division of community property. This is a fairly complex area of law and you should indicate what state you are in if you would like more detail.