Albert Sonntag’s Legal Blog

Refusal to return engagement ring could be breach of contract

 If you’re thinking of tying the knot and decide to buy an engagement ring for your fiancee, you may get it back if the engagement fails due to no fault of your own.  Conversely, if you receive a ring on your engagement, you will have to give it back if the engagement fails, unless the donor is responsible for the breakup.  California Civil Code, Section 1590 is quite explicit on the matter:

            “Where either party to a contemplated marriage in this State makes a gift of money or property to the other on the basis or assumption that the marriage will take place, in the event that the donee refuses to enter into the marriage as contemplated or that it is given up by mutual consent, the donor may recover such gift or such part of its value as may, under all of the circumstances of the case, be found by a court or jury to be just.” 

It has long been the law in the State of California that the donee of an engagement gift is not entitled to retain possession of it when the marriage contract is breached without any fault on the donor’s part.  Simonian v. Donoian (1950) 96 Cal.App.2d 259, 215 P.2d 119.  But note that the law makes no mention of what happens when the donor himself dissolves the engagement.

In effect, the law treats the transaction as a contract for which consideration is proffered.  If the donor breaks up the engagement, he has given no consideration for the return of the ring, and hypothetically would lose the right to repossession.  Conversely, the donee has a right to retain the consideration given by the donor to bind the donee to his or her engagement.

Caveat emptor!