Marriage Annulment

I must not be doing this exactly right...this is third time I have posted this message...first time it was on wrong bulletin board...oh well, here goes again!

My son was married on July 7 of this year in Noblesville, Indiana only to be told by his wife on August 8th that she did not want to stay with him but instead wanted to move back to Indiana as she missed her family and friends. My son is in the Navy, stationed in Norfolk, Va. He signed a lease agreement and they had moved into an apartment on August 4th in Norfolk. Needless to say, they both have mutually determined that marrying was not the right thing to do. My son was devastated inititally, but now he just wants to get the situation behind him and they both want the marriage annulled.

I have done some preliminary leg work and from reading the Indiana state statues, I am not sure if their situatiion meets/satisfies the criteria for annulment in Indiana. Unless...it can be considered under Indiana statue IC 31-11-9-3, where the reference is made to the "marriage being brought about through fraud on the part of one of the parties". My son fully believed (and his wife gave him every assurance) that she would follow him to Norfolk and they would begin to build a solid life together...she gave him every indication that moving to Norfolk and doing everything to nurture the marriage was in her plans. In fact, she is leaving Norfolk today, August 12th on her way back to Indiana with all her belongings.

Can anyone express an opinion based on what I have noted, if this marriage can be dissolved through the annulment process vs. the divorce route. My wife and I and my son think that the annulment process would be the least painful way and to be quite candid, the least expensive. Neither of them have any assets to speak of...just the furniture they both took into the marriage. His commanding officer has given him special leave to come home and resolve this matter. How long does the annulment process take if in fact the situation satisfies the annulment requirements.


Thanks so much for any advice/direction you can give me.

Fred

[LegalBeagle]

Unfortunately, there is no provision in annullment for someone changing their mind. For annullment, your son would have to prove that she purposely lied to him. But then a judge would want to know why and for what purpose.

He would have to prove that at the time of marriage, she had no intention of staying with him... Most likely, they will have to divorce. With no kids or property, it should be fairly easy.

Thanks for your response. I just let my wife read your response and she informed me that my son's wife told him shortly after she got to Norfolk, while discussing her plans to return to Indiana that she married him to give her son by a previous relationship a better home (this was in response to my son's basic question of why did she even agree to marry him if she was not going to go with him to wherever the military sends him). If she would agree to that in front of a judge, do you think annulment would be considered? I think the answer is no, but thought I would ask.

Thanks again for your response.