The Wedding is off, who gets the Ring?

You can imagine the scenario. Two young adults, happily in love. Thoughts of marriage and children and a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence. The husband-to-be spends weeks trying to find just the right engagement ring for his future wife. $10,000 later, he has it. The proposal is accepted and the two young lovers begin to plan their fabulous day.

Next, the engagement hits a snag. Perhaps a last fling or a realization that they just aren’t ready for this type of commitment. What happens to that $10,000 ring? Its an age old question. I can answer it, but this answer only applies to parties residing in Pennsylvania.

The landmark case concerning this issue is Lindh v. Surman. Lindh was a middle aged man who proposed marriage to Surman. He presented her with an engagement ring that he purchased for $17,400. Surman accepted the proposal and the ring. The couple had problems and decided to break the engagement. At that point, Lindh asked for the return of the ring, and Surman refused. A lawsuit commenced to decide the issue.

Pennsylvania law treats the giving of an engagement ring as a conditional gift. What that means is that the gift is conditioned upon the performance of some act. Surman argued that she fulfilled the condition to receive the gift, i.e., that she accepted Lindh’s proposal. However, the Court stated that there is an implied condition that the marriage must occur in order for the gift giving to be complete. In essence, the court ruled that the conditional act is the actual marriage itself, which did not occur. The court ordered the return of the ring to Lindh.