Mr. Wang and Ms. Zhang were introduced to each other in October 2019 and fell in love quickly, but they entered the marriage hall within a few months. But the good times did not last long. In November 2021, Mr. Wang found that Ms. Zhang was behaving strangely. He always felt that someone in the unit was discussing and ostracizing her. Mr. Wang realized the seriousness of the problem and took Ms. Zhang to the hospital for treatment. During the doctor’s consultation, Ms. Zhang told the doctor that she had been hospitalized in a hospital in the city as early as 2014 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Only then did Mr. Wang know that Ms. Zhang had suffered from schizophrenia before her marriage, and her condition was stabilized after drug control. She was able to work and study like a normal person. For Mr. Wang, this was like a bolt from the blue. He believed that Ms. Zhang had deliberately concealed her serious illness before marriage and deceived herself into getting married, and she had suffered great harm. He then sued the court in January 2022, requesting to revoke the marriage between the two.
During the trial, Ms. Zhang expressed her willingness to resolve the problem through divorce, but did not agree to annul the marriage. On the other hand, Mr. Wang strongly objected, saying that the marriage must be annulled, not only to seek justice for himself, but also to hope that others would not be deceived again. In the end, the court found that Ms. Zhang did not truthfully inform Mr. Wang that she was suffering from schizophrenia before the marriage registration, and ruled to revoke their marriage relationship, confiscated their marriage certificates in accordance with the law, and sent the judgment to the Civil Affairs Bureau.
The lawyer’s statement:
Article 1053 of the Civil Code stipulates that if one party suffers from a serious illness, the other party shall be truthfully informed before marriage registration; If notified, the other party may request the people’s court to revoke the marriage. A request for annulment of a marriage shall be filed within one year from the date when the cause of the revocation is known or should be known.
Regarding the scope of major diseases, as there is no clear provision in the Civil Code, you can refer to the provisions of Article 38 of the Maternal and Infant Health Care Law. Specifically, the first category refers to “serious hereditary diseases”, which refer to genetic diseases that are congenitally formed due to genetic factors, the patient loses all or part of the ability to live independently, the risk of recurrence of offspring is high, and it is medically considered infertile. The second category refers to “designated infectious diseases”, which refer to AIDS, syphilis, leprosy and other infectious diseases that are medically considered to affect marriage and childbirth as stipulated in the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases. The third category refers to “related mental illness”, which refers to schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis, and other major mental illnesses.
In this case, Ms. Zhang’s schizophrenia obviously falls into the category of severe mental illness, and her behavior of not truthfully informing the marriage partner that she has such a serious illness before marriage registration falls under the Civil Code With regard to the grounds for revocation of the marriage stipulated in Article 1053, as long as the concealed party submits a request for revocation of the marriage within one year from the date when he knew or should have known the grounds, the people’s court shall approve the revocation of the marriage after verifying the truth.
Attorneys suggest that the most important thing in a marriage relationship is to be honest with each other. If one party does have a serious illness, it should be informed truthfully, fulfill the obligation of notification before marriage, and let the other party make a choice with full knowledge. If you fail to inform before marriage, it will not only hurt the feelings of both parties, but also face the risk of revocation of the marriage and multiple compensations. This approach is neither desirable nor worth the loss.
Volunteer, Zhongshan Legal Aid and Rights Protection Center, Anhui Province
Grandall Lawyers (Hefei) Lawyer Jin Lei, lawyer