Can he take the ring back if the wedding doesn’t happen?

In the United States, the most popular engagement day is December 25, while ‘proposal season’ itself begins around Thanksgiving and concludes around Valentine’s Day. According to TheKnot.com, approximately forty percent of all engagements occur between November and February. Pignatelli & Associates attorney Beth Adams was proposed to, for example, on Groundhog Day 2018.

But, seriously, what happens to the ring if the couple call it quits before the Big Day?

Some engaged couples have their lawyers prepare a Premarital or Antenuptial Agreement. However, such agreements generally do not govern how to deal with engagement expenses, or how engagement rings are handled if the wedding does not occur.

What happens with the ring, already? Under Illinois law, an engagement ring is considered a gift, but no simple gift outright. Engagement rings are ‘conditional gifts.’ Conditional gifts are gifts given on the condition of something happening at a future date in time. For engagement rings, that future thing is the condition of marriage. When the condition of marriage does not occur – regardless of why, or who did what or said what – a ring so given may be returned the giver if the required conditions at law are satisfied.

If there is no dispute between the parties that one of the engaged alone purchased the ring or that he gave the ring to their betrothed for the purpose of proposing marriage, it is undisputed that the ring was a gift in contemplation of marriage. If the parties then do not marry and that one who received the ring intended to terminate the engagement, the condition attached to the gift of the engagement ring was not fulfilled. Therefore, the ring-giver will likely establish a right of possession. Similarly, they also may establish that the other wrongfully detained the ring, should the other be unwilling to return it.

What happens if the receiver fails to return the engagement ring as described above? If you give an engagement ring to your betrothed, break off the engagement and can’t get the ring back, you might consult with a lawyer to file a replevin action. To prevail on an action for replevin under Illinois law requires filing a verified complaint describing the property at issue, stating that one is lawfully entitled to its possession, and stating that the property is being wrongfully detained by defendant. In a replevin action, a plaintiff bears the burden of establishing that they are lawfully entitled to possession of the property at issue, superior to the defendant, and that defendant wrongfully detained the property and refuses to deliver possession of the property to plaintiff. The remedy of a replevin action is the return of the property at issue through intervention of the court.

Pignatelli & Associates P.C., 102 East Route 30, Suite 1, Rock Falls, IL 61071, 815.626.0500, www.pignatellilaw.com