Background
Carol Wood Lantz was diagnosed with senile dementia in 2018. Her sister Virginia Bozarth became her full-time caregiver in 2021, handling finances and daily tasks. In January 2023, Lantz married Billy Gene Shelton, Sr., a longtime family friend who had been driving her to errands. The marriage license contained errors: misspelled names of Lantz’s parents and incorrect marital status (listed as widowed rather than divorced).
Lantz’s health deteriorated following the marriage, and she entered hospice care. When Lantz died in 2024, Bozarth qualified as administrator of her estate. Bozarth subsequently filed suit seeking to annul the marriage, asserting that Lantz lacked mental capacity to consent when the marriage was solemnized. The trial court dismissed the action, concluding it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to annul the marriage after Lantz’s death.
The Court’s Holding
The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that under Virginia Code § 20-45.1(B), marriages involving a party lacking mental capacity to consent are voidable, not void ab initio. This interpretation has been Virginia law for nearly a century, dating to Cornwall v. Cornwall (1933). The statute’s language—requiring marriages be declared void “by a decree of divorce or nullity”—distinguishes voidable from absolutely void marriages, which the Code addresses without such a requirement (as with bigamous and incestuous marriages in Code § 20-43 and 20-45.1(A)).
The court reasoned that while void ab initio marriages may be impeached at any time and by any party (living or dead), voidable marriages cannot be collaterally attacked after a spouse’s death. A spouse’s death terminates the marriage and extinguishes the circuit court’s subject matter jurisdiction to enter a decree dissolving it. Because Lantz’s marriage was merely voidable and she died before any annulment decree, the court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter. The fact that Bozarth could prove Lantz’s mental incapacity at the time of marriage did not alter this jurisdictional bar.
Key Takeaways
- Virginia treats marriages by mentally incapacitated persons as voidable rather than void ab initio, a rule established in 1933 and embedded in current statute.
- Courts lose all subject matter jurisdiction to annul or dissolve a marriage upon the death of either spouse, even when challenging a voidable marriage.
- Statutory text matters: the legislature’s inclusion of “by a decree of divorce or nullity” in the mental capacity statute—language absent from provisions addressing absolutely void marriages—signals the voidable classification.
- Estate administrators cannot use post-death annulment proceedings to challenge a marriage entered during the decedent’s incapacity.
Why It Matters
This decision creates a significant practical gap for families of incapacitated individuals. When someone with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or similar conditions marries while incapacitated and then dies, the surviving family members—even those with fiduciary authority as estate administrators—cannot petition a court to void or annul the marriage. The statutory framework forces any challenge to occur during the incapacitated person’s lifetime, which may be impossible if the marriage occurs in secret or the family remains unaware until after death.
The consequences are material: a spouse married during incapacity may have inheritance rights, community property claims, or other economic interests in the estate despite the family’s ability to prove the person lacked mental capacity at the time of marriage. While acknowledging these “likely practical consequences” in a footnote, the court determined its role was limited to interpreting the legislature’s statutory language, leaving any reform to the General Assembly.