H. B. 4127
(By Delegates Fleischauer, Amores, Hrutkay,
Warner, Susman and Beane)
[Introduced January 23, 2002; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section one hundred three, article
three, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
voidable marriages; and providing that certain marriages are
void without the necessity of a judicial determination.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one hundred three, article three, chapter
forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 3. PROPERTY, RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES OF MARRIED WOMEN;
HUSBAND AND WIFE.
§48-3-103. Voidable marriages; void marriages.
(a) The following marriages are voidable and are void from the
time they are so declared by a judgment order of nullity:
(1) Marriages that are prohibited by law on account of either
of the parties having a wife or husband of a prior marriage, when
the prior marriage has not been terminated by divorce, annulment or
death;
(2) Marriages that are prohibited by law on account of
consanguinity or affinity between the parties;
(3) Marriages solemnized when either of the parties:
(A) Was an insane person, idiot or imbecile;
(B) Was afflicted with a venereal disease;
(C) Was incapable, because of natural or incurable impotency
of the body, of entering into the marriage state;
(D) Was under the age of consent; or
(E) Had been, prior to the marriage and without the knowledge
of the other party, convicted of an infamous offense;
(4) Marriages solemnized when, at the time of the marriage,
the wife, without the knowledge of the husband:
(A) Was with child by some person other than the husband; or
(B) Had been, prior to the marriage, notoriously a prostitute;
or
(5) Marriages solemnized when, prior to the marriage, the
husband, without the knowledge of the wife, had been notoriously a
licentious person.
(b) Any marriage entered into while one or both of the parties
to the marriage is legally married to another person is void and
does not require a judicial determination that it is void.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
declare that marriages
entered into when one or both of the parties are legally married to
another person are void without the necessity of a judicial
determination in order to make possible the collection of full
widow benefits for social security purposes.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.