[1469] See Amendments to the Civil Code of Cal. (1897), sec. 61. Cf. secs. 82-84 of Deering, Codes and Stat. (1886), II, 22, 28, 30. In New York the same exception is made when either spouse has been "finally sentenced to imprisonment for life": Rev. Stat. (1827-28), 139; ibid. (1889), IV, 2596.
[1470] Bates, Ann. Rev. Stat. of Ohio (1897), III, 3220; Myers, Rev. Stat. of Ill. (1895), 445.
[1471] Laws (1896), 128, 129, 271, 272.
[1472] In Pennsylvania force or fraud in the marriage is a ground for divorce: Pepper and Lewis, Digest (1896), I, 1635; ibid. (1902), II, 1830.
[1473] Stover, Code of Civil Proced. (1892), II, 1627.
[1474] In Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming these marriages are not voidable when there has been subsequent voluntary cohabitation; in New York, Oregon, and Washington they are voidable only at the suit of the injured party; and in New York, only on a decree rendered during the lifetime of the parties.
[1475] In Idaho a marriage is voidable for unsound mind, unless after the removal of the disability the parties freely cohabited; but in Iowa, when either party was impotent, insane, or an idiot, a marriage is not declared void by the statute, but provision is made for its annulment: McLain, Ann. Code (1888), I, 897. By the law of Michigan, such a marriage is voidable, if solemnized in the state; but there, as also in New York, Nebraska, and Wyoming, in case of lunacy, a marriage is not voidable when the parties have freely cohabited after the lunatic recovered.
[1476] By the Indiana law such voidable marriages shall be declared void on application of the incapable party, and the children thereof shall be legitimate. The same is true in Kansas, but there cohabitation after incapacity ceases is a sufficient defense to the action for annulment. The law of Minnesota is similar. In Nevada and Nebraska a marriage is "not voidable for want of age, if after attaining the age of consent the parties for any time freely cohabited; nor for want of understanding, if after restoration to reason" they so cohabited. According to the New York statute a marriage is "not voidable on account of want of age at suit of the party who was of age of consent; nor where it appears that the parties after attaining such age freely cohabited; nor of a female under sixteen years of age if she had parental consent to the marriage," or when she ratified it after reaching that age. The law of Oregon is practically the same. In Michigan and Wyoming a marriage of persons below the age of consent is void if they separate during nonage and do not afterward cohabit.
[1477] In Nebraska, New York, and Wyoming an action for annulment on the ground of impotence must be brought in two years; while for this cause in Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, Oregon, and some other states a "divorce" will be granted. Physical incapacity is cause for divorce in Michigan; and suit to "annul" a marriage on this ground must be brought within two years: Miller, Comp. Laws (1899), III, 2664.
[1478] By the Ohio law marriages "contracted by male persons under the age of eighteen and females under the age of fourteen [now sixteen] are invalid, unless confirmed by cohabitation after arriving at those ages respectively; and such marriage, not so confirmed, does not subject a person to punishment for bigamy for contracting a subsequent marriage while the first husband or wife is living": see Shafher v. State, 20 Ohio Reports, 1.