Marriage declared null on grounds of deceit

A court yesterday declared a marriage null after hearing that a woman had concealed from the man she married the fact that she was an alcoholic.

Mr Justice Noel Cushieri, sitting in the Family Court, upheld the application filed by the man asking the court to declare his marriage null because he had been deceived.

On evaluating the case, the judge heard that the couple got married just a few months after they met. After they tied the knot the man found out that his wife was an alcoholic. She had never mentioned anything about this before.

The man told the court that, as a result of the alcohol abuse, his wife was always asleep or suffering headaches and this interfered with their married life on both an intimate and emotional level. He also said he had tried to help her overcome the problem but to no avail and, subsequently, his wife just left him and never contacted him again.

Mr Justice Cuschieri ruled that the fact that the woman never told the man about her problem constituted deceit. He also ruled that the alcohol abuse problem itself qualified as a "psychological anomaly" in terms of law.

The court therefore upheld the application filed by the man and declared the marriage null and void.