All marriages contracted while either of the parties has a former wife or husband living shall be void. But this section shall not extend to a person whose husband or wife shall be absent for the space of five years, the one not knowing the other to be living during that time, not to any person who shall be divorced or whose first marriage shall be declared void by the sentence of a competent court.
S.C. Code Ann. § 20-1-80
Bigamous marriage shall be void; exceptions
Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case United States v. Belton Lamont Platt, United States of America v. Gordon Platt (1991)
Most recently applied in Brown v. Sojourner (In re Estate of Brown) (July 2018)
1962 Code SECTION 20-6; 1952 Code SECTION 20-6; 1942 Code SECTION 8568; 1932 Code SECTION 8568; Civ
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Carolina Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.