Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 19. DOMESTIC RELATIONS · Chapter 3. MARRIAGE GENERALLY · Article 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

19-3-5. What marriages void; legitimacy of issue; effect of later ratification.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

(a)
Marriages of persons unable to contract, unwilling to contract, or fraudulently induced to contract shall be void. However, the issue of such a marriage born before the marriage is annulled and declared void by a competent court shall be legitimate.#
(b)
In the case of persons unwilling to contract or fraudulently induced to do so, a subsequent consent and ratification of the marriage, freely and voluntarily made, accompanied by cohabitation as husband and wife shall render the marriage valid. In the case of a marriage void on one of the grounds specified in paragraphs (1) through (3) of Code Section 19-3-2, after removal of the impediment to marriage, a subsequent free and voluntary consent and ratification of the marriage accompanied by cohabitation as husband and wife shall likewise render the marriage valid.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Orig. Code 1863, § 1657; Code 1868, § 1701; Code 1873, § 1702; Code 1882, § 1702; Civil Code 1895, § 2416; Civil Code 1910, § 2935; Code 1933, § 53-104.

Law reviews

For article, “Annulment of Marriage in Georgia,” see 5 Ga. B.J. 22 (1942). For article, “Georgia Inheritance Rights of Children Born Out of Wedlock,” see 23 Ga. St. B.J. 28 (1986). For annual survey of law of domestic relations, see 38 Mercer L. Rev. 179 (1986).

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t18-t19-(v16)-2022-pdf.pdf, Volume V16, 2022 edition, page 322; merge action: annotated; file SHA-256 eddc877da9f2.