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It follows that for a libellus to be accepted under c. 1095, there must be some allegation of a gravely anomalous condition - present at the moment of the marriage - in the person accused of consensual incapacity, accompanied by assertions or claims relating to signs, symptoms or events which, if substantiated, could make the presence of such an anomaly more likely. If nothing gravely anomalous is alleged, if nothing is asserted that could point to at least the possibility of a grave psychic anomaly, if there is no pre-wedding (or even post-wedding) medical history of some definite psychic disorder, if all that is spoken of is simple "immaturity" or commonplace character defects, etc., then there is good reason to consider that the libellus should not be accepted as clearly lacking in sufficient foundation (cfr. c. 1505, §2, 4º).

[English version: Forum 6 (1995):2, pp. 141-164]

I. The Facts

1.         Alan and Dorothy, the parties to this case, first met in Feb. 1978. They were quickly attracted to one another and soon became engaged. They married on Nov. 3 of the same year, when the man was 23 years old and the woman almost 21. Their married life together, marked by the birth of one child, lasted two and a half years. Growing dissensions led to their breakup. In May 1981 they finally separated.

I. The Facts

1.         Maria M and William B, after a fifteen months engagement, married early in 1949, he being 25 and she 22. Married life lasted more than thirty years, but ended in 1980 when Maria left him. In 1986 she petitioned the Tribunal of Omaha for a declaration of nullity on the grounds of incapacity on the part of the man. After an instruction, consisting of the evidence of the parties and of seven witnesses, an Affirmative Sentence was given by the Court in April 1987, and confirmed by the second instance Tribunal of Omaha the following month.

[English version in Studia canonica, 29 (1995), pp. 241-253]

I. The Facts

1.         David and Danielle met in 1962 when the petitioner was doing military service with the U.S. Army in France. On his return home, they kept corresponding until she came at his invitation to attend his sister's wedding in August 1967. They then first spoke of getting married which actually occurred at the end of that same year. He was then 25 years old, and she was 27.