The highly significant Spanish Supreme Court Ruling 91/2024, dated January 24, clarifies that the action to request the annulment of a marriage, in this case brought by the child of one of the spouses after their death, is not subject to any expiration date. This decision resolves a case that could be of general interest, given the increasing life expectancy, the aging population, and the growing prevalence of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The proven facts of the case, summarized, are as follows:

In January 2013, the children of a widowed father filed a lawsuit to modify their father’s legal capacity, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2011. They requested that one of them be appointed as his guardian. 

In December 2013, the father and his future wife signed a prenuptial agreement, and in February 2014, they were married. Subsequently, the father made a will, leaving his children the legally required portion of the inheritance, and naming his new wife as heir on all the rest of his righrs and assets, with substitution in favor of her descendants. 

In December 2014, the court issued a ruling modifying the father’s legal capacity and appointing his wife as guardian. 

In January 2015, the children filed for the annulment of the marriage, arguing that their father lacked the capacity to give marital consent at the time of the wedding, invoking articles 45 and 73 of the Civil Code. This procedure was provisionally closed in 2016, and in 2021, the case was declared expired. 

In 2017, the father passed away, and in the same year, the children filed a claim to annul the will due to the testator’s lack of capacity. Both the lower court and the Court of Appeal declared the will null and void, reinstating the previous will, which named the children as equal heirs. The wife appealed to the Supreme Court, but her appeal was dismissed. 

In 2021, one of the deceased’s children filed another claim to annul the marriage his father had contracted in 2014. The lower Court upheld this claim and declared the marriage null due to lack of consent. However, the wife appealed to the Court of Appeal, saying, among other things, that the action was time-barred, claiming that it was subject to the four-year limitation period provided in sections 1301 and 1302.3 of the Spanish Civil Code. The Court of Appeal accepted this position and ruled that the action had expired, stating that “since the consent was given without necessary support measures, the period for filing the annulment action begins to run from the date of the marriage, which took place on February 7, 2014. The claim was filed in May 2021, well beyond the four years provided for its exercise.”

When the Supreme Court reviewed the case, it overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision, finding that the general rule, except for the exceptional cases provided in sections 75 and 76 of the Spanish Civil Code, is that those authorized to challenge the validity of a marriage can do so without being subject to any limitation period. The specific law on marriage annulment takes precedence over the general rule on the expiration of nullity actions. Since lack of marital consent is a cause for annulment, the Supreme Court upheld the annulment of the marriage in this case.