Family Law

Who Owns the Engagement Ring? (Part One)

By Ben Stevens

Prior to marriage, an engagement ring is generally treated as a conditional gift, rather than an absolute gift. In other words, the ring was given conditioned upon the subsequent ceremonial marriage.  Under Roman Law, if the parties jointly decided to call off the engagement, the ring was to be returned to the donor.  If one of the parties unjustifiably called off the engagement, then that person forfeited any rights to the ring. 

This approach has been the prevailing one in the United States, and under this rationale, the donor is not entitled to the return of an engagement ring if he is at fault for calling off the engagement. However, there is a minority rule that utilizes a 'no-fault' approach, whereby if the engagement is broken, the ring is returned to the donor – no matter who is at fault. This approach is intended to limit litigation.

Because of the (relatively) small amount of money at stake, however, these cases rarely make it to the highest court in the state. For example, in South Carolina there are no Supreme Court cases on point, so there is still a fair amount of confusion as to which approach to take at the trial level, and it is often difficult to predict the results.

For information about who owns the engagement ring after marriage, see 'Who Owns the Engagement Ring? (Part Two)' – to be published later this week.

"Who Owns the Engagement Ring? (Part One)" by Paul C. MacPhail.

Full post as published by SC Family Law Blog on June 23, 2009 (boomark / email).