CHAPTER 233

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 20-45 and 20-47 of the Code of Virginia
relating to voidance of certain prohibited marriages and prohibiting
marriages with certain patients in State mental institutions. 9

[(S 51)

Approved March 31, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 20-45 and 20-47 of the Code of Virginia be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 20-45. All marriages which are prohibited by law on account of
consanguinity or affinity between the parties, and all marriages solemnized
when either of the parties was * incapable from physical or mental causes
of entering into the marriage state, or when either of the parties has been
lawfully adjudged to be insane, epileptic or feeble-minded, as provided in
Chapter 5 of Title 37, shall, if solemnized within this State, be void from
the time they shall be so declared by a decree of divorce or nullity, or
from the time of the conviction of the parties under 20-40. *

§ 20-47. If any man or woman shall knowingly marry any person
lawfully adjudged to be insane * or feeble-minded, as provided in Chapter
5 of Title 37, and duly admitted as a patient or inmate in any State
Hospital or colony for the * mentally ill or mentally deficient, whether such
person be actually confined in a hospital or colony or in the custody of
some person on bond or furlough or at large as an escaped patient or
inmate, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction
thereof shall be confined in jail not exceeding six months or fined not
exceeding five hundred dollars or both. * Furthermore, if any persons,
resident of this State, one of whom has been so adjudged to be insane or
feeble-minded and is a lawfully committed and undischarged patient or
inmate of any State hospital or colony for the * mentally ul or mentally
deficient, as above provided, shall, with the intention of returning to reside
in this State, go into another state or country and there intermarry and
return to and reside in this State, cohabiting as man and wife, such
marriage shall be governed by the same law, in all respects as if it had
been solemnized in this State. *