A marriage may be invalid because it is between close relatives, underage persons, or people incapable of entering into the marriage contract because of mental incompetence, or if a prior marriage exists. Sometimes people discover that their marriage is invalid only when filing for divorce.
In some states, the putative spouse doctrine offers some protection to the innocent party if the parties went through a ceremonial marriage. A putative (meaning “supposed”) spouse may be entitled to the same benefits and rights as a legal spouse for as long as she or he reasonably believed the marriage to be valid. In states that do not accept the putative spouse doctrine, people who mistakenly believe they are married have the same status as unmarried couples who have lived together.
After a long union that both parties honestly believed was a valid marriage, a court may refuse to declare the marriage invalid and require a divorce to end the marriage.

What if one person tricks the other into thinking there has been a valid marriage?

Sometimes the law treats an invalid marriage as valid if one person tricked the other into thinking that the couple had a valid marriage. If so, a court might not allow the deceiving partner to declare the marriage invalid. In legal terms, the court estops (a legal term meaning “prevents”) the deceiving partner from denying that the marriage exists. In addition, a court may find that the doctrine of laches (or “long delay”) prevents even the innocent party, who originally did not know about the invalid marriage, from having the marriage declared invalid if he or she did nothing for a long time after learning that the marriage was not valid.

Duties of Marriage

Does either spouse have a duty to work outside the home?
No. While the husband and wife are married and living together, a court is not going to get involved in private family decisions of who works and who does not. That’s left to the husband and wife to sort out. Today, more than one-half of married women–including women with preschool-age children–work outside the home. A husband or wife cannot, as a matter of law, force his or her spouse to work.

If the wife and husband separate or divorce, can a court require them to work outside the home?

No, not directly. If a wife and husband separate or divorce, a court still cannot directly order one or both of them to work. The court can, however, declare that one or both parties owe a duty of financial support to the other party (alimony; also called maintenance or spousal support) or to the children (child support). If so, the court will set an amount of support that must be paid. A duty of financial support means that person who is supposed to pay support must come up with the money somehow–usually from work or from savings. If the person who is supposed to pay support does not pay the money and does not have a good excuse why the money has not been paid, that person could be held in contempt of court. The possible penalties for being held in contempt of court include payment of fines and incarceration. Payments of child support and alimony will be discussed later in this chapter.
Are there legal remedies if a husband or wife refuses to have sexual relations with his or her spouse?
A court would not order a person to have sexual relations with his or her spouse. A spouse who forces sexual relations with a partner can be charged with rape under the state’s criminal law. In some states, the refusal to have sexual relations with a spouse is a specific ground for divorce or annulment of the marriage. In other states, refusal to have sexual relations could be considered a ground for divorce because it is an “irreconcilable difference” or a “mental cruelty.”

May wives and husbands sue each other?

Yes. Husbands and wives can, of course, sue each other for a divorce. They can also sue each other in connection with financial deals in which one may have cheated the other. The vast majority of states also allow one spouse to sue the other for deliberate personal injuries, such as those suffered in a beating. Some states allow husbands and wives to sue each other in connection with an auto accident in which one of them, who was the driver, accidentally caused injury to the other, who was a passenger. In effect, the person suing may be trying to collect money from an insurance company rather from the person’s spouse. Many states, fearing that this would encourage collusion, do not allow such lawsuits.

Can spouses testify against each other in court?

Yes. Husbands and wives routinely testify against each other in divorce cases. There is an old rule that husbands and wives cannot testify about communications made between them during the marriage. Although the rule may be applied in some circumstances, it generally does not apply if the husband and wife are involved in a lawsuit against each other.