Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 27

7. Habitual drunkenness for one year.

8. Conviction of felony.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

MARRIAGE.--A civil contract. The minimum age for males is 16 years, for females 14 years.

The consent of the father or mother is necessary in marriages of males under the age of twenty-one years, and of females under the age of eighteen years, unless the party under age has been previously lawfully married.

IMPEDIMENTS.--A man shall not marry his grandmother, grandfather's wife, wife's grandmother, father's sister, mother's sister, mother, stepmother, wife's mother, daughter, wife's daughter, son's wife, sister, son's daughter, daughter's daughter, son's son's wife, daughter's son's wife, wife's son's daughter, wife's daughter's daughter, brother's daughter, sister's daughter. A woman shall not marry her grandfather, grandmother's husband, husband's grandfather, father's brother, mother's brother, father, stepfather, husband's father, son, husband's son, daughter's husband, brother, son's son, daughter's son, son's daughter's husband, daughter's daughter's husband, husband's son's son, husband's daughter's son, brother's son, sister's son.

CELEBRATION.--Marriage may be solemnized before a judge of any court of record, or any justice of the peace, or by any minister or ordained person who has furnished proof of his official capacity to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.

Licenses to marry are issued by the clerk of the Supreme Court upon an affidavit showing that the contracting parties are competent and that all the requirements of law have been complied with.

DIVORCE.--There is only one cause for a divorce, namely, adultery. A judicial separation or divorce from bed and board may be granted because of cruelty, unjustifiable desertion or drunkenness.

Marriages procured by fraud or coercion, or between parties incapable by reason of insanity or non-age of concluding the contract, can be annulled.

Pet.i.tioners in matrimonial causes must have been bona fide residents of the District of Columbia before inst.i.tuting proceedings.

CONNECTICUT.

MARRIAGE.--No age is fixed by statute at which minors are capable of contracting marriage.

The parents or guardians must give consent in writing to the registrar before a license is issued if either party is a minor.

CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY.--No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt, niece, stepmother or stepdaughter; no woman shall marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, brother, uncle, nephew, stepfather or stepson. All such marriages are declared to be incestuous.

CELEBRATION.--Any ordained clergyman of any State, any judge or justice of the peace may solemnize marriage. No special form of celebration is required.

ANNULMENT.--Whenever, from any cause, any marriage is void the superior court has jurisdiction, upon complaint, to pa.s.s a decree declaring it so.

LEGITIMACY OF CHILDREN.--Children born before marriage whose parents afterwards intermarry are deemed legitimate and inherit equally with other children.

DIVORCE.--The Superior Court has exclusive jurisdiction and may grant absolute divorce to any man or woman for the following offences committed by the other: Adultery, fraudulent contract, wilful desertion for three years with total neglect of duty, seven years' absence unheard from, habitual intemperance, intolerable cruelty, sentence to imprisonment for life, or any infamous crime involving a violation of conjugal duty and punishable by imprisonment in State prison.

Parties divorced may marry again.

There is no limited divorce recognized by the laws of Connecticut.

DELAWARE.

MARRIAGE.--While no age is fixed by statute as to when males or females may conclude marriage, in case of a marriage under the age of 18 years for males and 16 years for females a divorce can be obtained for fraud for want of age, in the absence of voluntary ratification after reaching that age.

Parental consent is required for males under 21 years and females under 18 years.

IMPEDIMENTS.--Degrees of consanguinity: A man may not marry his mother, father's sister, mother's sister, sister, daughter or the daughter of his son or daughter. A woman may not marry her father, father's brother, mother's brother, brother, son, or the son of her son or daughter. Degrees of affinity: A man may not marry his father's wife, son's wife, son's daughter, wife's daughter, or the daughter of his wife's son or daughter.

A woman may not marry her mother's husband, daughter's husband, husband's son, or the son of her husband's son or daughter.

Marriages between whites and negroes or mulattoes are prohibited.

CAUSES FOR DIVORCE.--They are adultery, bigamy, desertion for two years, habitual drunkenness for two years, extreme cruelty, or conviction after marriage of a crime, followed by continuous imprisonment for two years.

The causes for divorce from bed and board are the same, with the addition of one other, namely, hopeless insanity of the husband.

A marriage may be annulled for any of the following causes, existing at the time of the marriage: Incurable physical impotency; consanguinity; a former husband or wife living at the time of the marriage; fraud, force or coercion; insanity of either party; minority of either party, unless the marriage be confirmed after reaching proper age, to wit.: wife, 16 years; husband, 18 years.

FLORIDA.

MARRIAGE.--In order to be valid marriages must be celebrated before a qualified clergyman, judge, magistrate or notary public.

Parties must be of sound mind, and the male at least seventeen years of age and the female at least fourteen years of age.

DIVORCE.--Absolute divorce dissolving a marriage is granted by the courts for the following causes:

1. That the parties are within the degrees prohibited by law.

2. That the defendant is naturally impotent.

3. That the defendant has been guilty of adultery.

4. Extreme cruelty by defendant to complainant.

5. Habitual indulgence by defendant in violent and ungovernable temper.

6. Habitual intemperance of defendant.

7. Wilful, obstinate and continued desertion by defendant for one year.

8. That defendant has obtained a divorce in any other State or country.

9. That either party had a husband or wife living at the time of marriage.

Judicial separations or divorces from bed and board are not granted in Florida.

The pet.i.tioner called the complainant must have resided in the State two years, except where the defendant has been guilty of the act of adultery in the State, then any citizen of the State may obtain a divorce at any time, and the two years' residence shall not be required of complainant.

A suit of divorce is commenced by a bill in chancery, and the general chancery practice of the State is followed throughout.

A decree of divorce does not render illegitimate children born of the marriage, except in the case of a decree obtained on the ground that one of the parties had a previous spouse living at the time of the marriage.

GEORGIA.