P.C. v. P.C. [7 July 1989
Annual Review of Population Law 16: 65-66
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12344496 Document Number: 383322
The Irish court granted a decree of nullity to the applicant husband on the grounds that his marriage was doomed from the outset because of immaturity of character and temperament on the part of both parties and an incapacity to form and sustain a normal marriage relationship. The couple had cohabited and the wife contested the request for a decree of nullity. The court rejected the argument that a petitioner could not rely on the grounds of his own incapacity when the other party has not repudiated the marriage. Other High Court opinions in 1989 held the following with respect to nullity: 1) a marriage can be annulled on the ground of lack of consent when the wife marries because of professional and personal difficulties that her pregnancy would present if she did not marry and because of incapacity to form and sustain a normal marriage relationship when the husband suffers from a gross personality disorder leaving him unable to form any meaningful marriage relationship (W.[C.] v. C, 17 February 1989, Irish Law Times, August 1989, p. 178); 2) a marriage cannot be annulled on the grounds of duress when the husband shows only that he feared legal action if he did not marry his fiance and was suffering no mental illness (O'S. v. W[O'S], 25 July 1989, Irish Law Times, September 1990, p. 195); and 3) a marriage cannot be annulled on the ground of incapacity to enter into and sustain a normal marriage relationship as evidenced by the homosexual nature of the husband if there is no mental illness present (U.F. [U.C.] v. J.C., 24 May 1989, Irish Law Times, April 1990, p. 106).