You proposed. She accepted. You gave her an engagement ring. Then things took a turn for the worse. Eventually the wedding is cancelled.
Who keeps the engagement ring? A recent Bridgeport Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the man.
The woman argued that the ring was a gift and therefore should not be returned. She was partially right. The prevailing view is that the ring is a gift -but a “conditional” gift. The condition? The eventual marriage between the parties. So if the marriage does not occur then the condition is not met. As a result, the ring should be returned.
The decision did not seem to take “fault” surrounding the breakup into account. This makes sense for two reasons:
1) No fault is the modern trend in terms of handling most family matters; and
2) The court would spend a lot of effort, resources and time to determine fault for the termination of an engagement. Such an approach would not be efficient given that common law contract principles could settle the dispute.
Please contact me if you have a dispute over the engagement ring or other pre-marital property.