How a marriage becomes void
A petition for decree of nullity of marriage may be granted by the court on the grounds that the marriage is void on any of these grounds:
a. That one of the parties had a husband or wife still living at the time the marriage was contracted — bigamy;
b. That the marriage is void under the Marriage Act or any other Jamaican law relating to marriages which is in force.
The Marriage Act states that the following marriages are void:
a. When both parties knowingly and wilfully agree to their marriage ceremony being conducted by a person who is not a marriage officer or without two witnesses in addition to the marriage officer; and,
b. When it is between persons where one or both of them is under 16 years old; and,
c. If the parties are close blood relatives or some other relationship prohibited in the laws of England.
d. There is also the prohibition of marriage between a man/woman to an ex-sister-in-law or ex-brother-in-law after a divorce here in Jamaica.
e. Marriages celebrated at the time or after the Matrimonial Causes Act came into force, when the consent to the marriage of either party was not a valid consent.
Consent is not valid if:
* It was obtained by duress or fraud; or
* One party mistook the identity of the other party or the nature of the ceremony being performed; or
* One party was mentally incapable of understanding the nature and effect of the marriage ceremony at the time of the marriage; or
* When the parties to the marriage, at the time of the marriage, were of the same sex.
Any married person who has reasonable grounds for believing that their spouse is dead, may petition the court to grant a decree that the other spouse is dead and to dissolve the marriage. If the court is satisfied that such presumption is reasonable on the evidence presented to it, it may grant the decree of presumption of death and dissolve the marriage.
The fact that such a spouse has been continuously absent, silent, not seen for seven years or more and the petitioner has no reason to believe that the other spouse has been alive during this period, shall be evidence that the other party is dead until the contrary is proved.
