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2017 SESSION
17104111DBe it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 20-89.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 20-89.1. Suit to annul marriage.
A. When a marriage is alleged to be void or voidable for any of the causes mentioned in § 20-13, 20-38.1, or 20-45.1 or by virtue of fraud or duress, either party may institute a suit for annulling the same; and upon proof of the nullity of the marriage, it shall be decreed void by a decree of annulment.
B. In the case of natural or incurable impotency of body existing at the time of entering into the marriage contract, or when, prior to the marriage, either party, without the knowledge of the other, had been convicted of a felony, or when, at the time of the marriage, the wife, without the knowledge of the husband, was with child by some person other than the husband, or where the husband, without knowledge of the wife, had fathered a child born to a woman other than the wife within 10 months after the date of the solemnization of the marriage, or where, prior to the marriage, either party had been, without the knowledge of the other, a prostitute, a decree of annulment may be entered upon proof, on complaint of the party aggrieved.
C. No annulment for a marriage alleged to be void or voidable
under subsection B of § 20-45.1 or subsection B of this
section or by virtue of fraud or duress shall be decreed if
it appears that the party applying for such annulment has cohabited with the
other after knowledge of the facts giving rise to what otherwise would have
been grounds for annulment, and in no event
shall any such decree be entered if the parties had been married for a period
of two years prior to the institution of such suit for annulment.
D. A party who, at the time of such marriage as is mentioned in § 20-48, was capable of consenting with a party not so capable shall not be permitted to institute a suit for the purpose of annulling such marriage.