Title 14, Domestic Relations and Persons

Defamation is effected by: 1. Libel; or 2. Slander.

Libel is a false and unprivileged publication by writing, printing, picture, effigy, or other fixed representation to the eye, which exposes any person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy, or which causes the person to be shunned or avoided, or which has a tendency to injur…

Slander is a false and unprivileged publication other than libel, which: 1. Charges any person with crime, or with having been indicted, convicted, or punished for crime; 2. Imputes to the person the present existence of an infectious, contagious, or loathsome disease; 3. Tends d…

A privileged communication is one made: 1. In the proper discharge of an official duty; 2. In any legislative or judicial proceeding or in any other proceeding authorized by law; 3. In a communication, without malice, to a person interested therein by one who also is interested, …

All civil claims for relief for breach of promise to marry, alienation of affection, criminal conversation, and seduction are abolished. A claim for relief brought before July 1, 1983, under this section, is valid until final judgment is rendered.

Any necessary force may be used to protect from wrongful injury the person or property of one's self, or of a wife, husband, child, parent, or other relative, or member of one's family, or of a ward, servant, master, or guest.

The owner, licensee, or operator of a visual or sound radio broadcasting station or network of stations, and the agents or employees of any such owner, licensee, or operator, are not liable for any damages for any defamatory statement published or uttered in or as a part of a vis…

No person may have more than one claim for relief for damages for libel or slander or invasion of privacy or any other tort founded upon any single publication or exhibition or utterance, such as any one edition of a newspaper or book or magazine or any one presentation to an aud…

Marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between one man and one woman to which the consent of the parties is essential. The marriage relation may be entered into, maintained, annulled, or dissolved only as provided by law. A spouse refers only to a person …

For the purpose of instituting any action or proceeding in the courts of this state, under the provisions of this title, in which residence is a requirement, any member of any branch of the armed forces of the United States who is stationed within the state, and the wife or husba…

Any unmarried person of the age of eighteen years or more, and not otherwise disqualified, is capable of consenting to and consummating a marriage. If a person is sixteen to eighteen years of age, a marriage license may not be issued without the consent of the parents or guardian…

The following marriages are incestuous and void: 1. Marriage between parents and children, including grandparents and grandchildren of every degree. 2. Marriage between brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood. 3. Marriage between uncles and nieces of the half …

A marriage contracted by a person having a former husband or wife living, if the former marriage has not been annulled or dissolved, is illegal and void from the beginning unless such former husband or wife was absent and believed by such person to be dead for a period of five ye…

Except when residents of this state contract a marriage in another state which is prohibited under the laws of this state, all marriages contracted outside this state, which are valid according to the laws of the state or country where contracted, are valid in this state. This se…

Marriages may be solemnized at any location within the state by: 1. All judges of courts of record; 2. Municipal judges; 3. Recorders, unless the board of county commissioners designates a different official; 4. Ordained ministers of the gospel, priests, and clergy, authorized by…

A person may not solemnize any marriage until the parties to the marriage produce a license regularly issued not more than sixty days before the date of the marriage by: 1. A recorder serving the county in which either of the contracting parties resides or is temporarily domicile…

When an official authorized to issue a marriage license desires to have a license for the official's own marriage issued in the county of the official's residence, the official may request another authorized official to act in the official's stead upon the application for the lic…

1. When application is made to a recorder, unless the board of county commissioners designates a different official, for a marriage license, the recorder, or designated official, shall inquire of the applicant concerning the legality of the contemplated marriage. The recorder, or…

A license for marriage may not be issued to anyone under the influence of intoxicating liquor at the time of making application therefor. No marriage ceremony may be performed when either or both of the contracting parties is under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any narc…

If a recorder, unless the board of county commissioners designates a different official, is satisfied that there is no legal impediment to the marriage and that the applicants have complied with the provisions of this chapter, then the recorder, or designated official, shall issu…

The marriage license and certificate of the person solemnizing the marriage must be upon one blank form in duplicate consisting of two pages with a perforated seam to make it readily detachable. The form must be substantially as follows: MARRIAGE LICENSE State of North Dakota ) )…

1. Every person has the right to adopt any surname by which that person wishes to be known by using that surname consistently and without intent to defraud. 2. A person's surname does not automatically change upon marriage. Neither party to the marriage must change the party's su…

1. One party or both parties to a marriage may elect to change the middle name by which that individual wishes to be known after the solemnization of the marriage by entering the new middle name in the space provided on the marriage license application. If an individual elects to…

When a person authorized by law solemnizes a marriage, that person shall fill out and sign the certificate following the license in duplicate, giving the person's official title, or if a minister of the gospel or priest, the ecclesiastical body with which the minister or priest i…

1. For the issuance and filing of a marriage license, the recorder, unless the board of county commissioners designates a different official, shall collect a fee of up to thirty dollars from the party applying for the license. 2. In addition to the license fee provided for in sub…

The books of record of marriage licenses issued and certificates returned which are kept by a recorder, unless the board of county commissioners designates a different official, serving any county, or certified copies of such entries, and certified copies of the records of the re…

Every person who attempts to join others in marriage or to perform the marriage ceremony for another within this state without being authorized by law so to do must be punished as provided in section 14-03-28.

Unless otherwise provided, any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

A marriage may be annulled by an action in the district court to obtain a decree of nullity for any of the following causes existing at the time of the marriage: 1. That the party in whose behalf it is sought to have the marriage annulled was under the age of legal consent, as de…

An action to obtain a decree of nullity of marriage for causes mentioned in section 14-04-01 must be commenced within the periods and by the parties as follows: 1. For causes mentioned in subsection 1, by the party to the marriage who was married under the age of legal consent, w…

When a marriage is annulled, children begotten before the judgment are legitimate and succeed to the estate of both parents.

The court shall award the custody of the children of a marriage annulled on the ground of fraud or force to a party based upon the best interests and welfare of the child criteria set forth in chapter 14-09.

A judgment of nullity of marriage rendered is conclusive only as against the parties to the action and those claiming under them.

Marriage is dissolved only: 1. By the death of one of the parties; or 2. By a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction decreeing a divorce of the parties.

The effect of a judgment decreeing a divorce is to restore the parties to the state of unmarried persons, but neither party to a divorce may marry except in accordance with the decree of the court granting the divorce. It is the duty of the court granting a divorce to specify in …

Each decree of divorce must include the social security numbers of the parties to the divorce.

Divorces may be granted for any of the following causes: 1. Adultery. 2. Extreme cruelty. 3. Willful desertion. 4. Willful neglect. 5. Abuse of alcohol or controlled substances. 6. Conviction of felony. 7. Irreconcilable differences.

The court may grant a temporary or permanent decree of separation for any cause for which a divorce may be decreed.

Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with a person other than the offender's husband or wife.

Extreme cruelty is the infliction by one party to the marriage of grievous bodily injury or grievous mental suffering upon the other.

Willful desertion is the voluntary separation of one of the married parties from the other with intent to desert: 1. Persistent refusal to have reasonable matrimonial intercourse as husband and wife when health or physical condition does not make such refusal reasonably necessary…

Willful neglect is the failure of either spouse to provide for the common necessaries of life for the other party, when that spouse has the ability to do so and the party alleging neglect does not have the ability, or when a spouse fails to provide by reason of idleness, profliga…

Abuse of alcohol or controlled substances is that degree of use which disqualifies the person a great portion of the time from properly attending to business or which reasonably would inflict a course of great mental anguish upon the innocent party. For purposes of this chapter, …

A decree of divorce or of annulment of marriage obtained in a court of another jurisdiction is of no force or effect in this state, if the parties to the marriage were domiciled in this state at the time such decree was rendered. If a person obtains a decree of divorce or of annu…

Willful desertion, willful neglect, or habitual intemperance must continue for one year before either is a ground for a divorce.

Irreconcilable differences are those grounds which are determined by the court to be substantial reasons for not continuing the marriage and which make it appear that the marriage should be dissolved.