May 13, 2009, 5:13 PM ET

Engagement Rings and the Law

By Ashby Jones

3Dweddingrings=20 Ah,=20 springtime. The time of the year when the weather turns warm, the trees = turn=20 green, and so many wedding invitations across the land get signed, = sealed and=20 delivered, in all of their calligraphied glory.

With that in mind, let=92s drop a little = wedding-related legal=20 knowledge on you, knowledge that, frankly, we hope you never have to = use.=20

The knowledge starts with a question: When an = engagement=20 breaks up, who gets the ring?

It turns out that, like so many areas of the law, = it=20 depends. San Diego-based speaker, author and lawyer Jeff Isaac, who goes = by the=20 moniker =93The = Lawyer in Blue=20 Jeans,=94 says that the law depends on the = state, but=20 as a threshold matter, the common-law rule is that an engagement ring is = a=20 conditional gift =97 it is given (often but not always) by a man to a = woman with=20 the express condition that the recipient go ahead with the marriage. =

In California, this apparently happens so often = that the=20 state legislature passed a law. CA Civil Code 1590 states: =

Where either party to a contemplated marriage in this State = makes a=20 gift of money or property to the other on the basis or assumption that = the=20 marriage will take place, in the event that the donee refuses to enter = into the=20 marriage as contemplated or that it is given up by mutual consent, the = donor may=20 recover such gift or such part of its value as may, under all of the=20 circumstances of the case, be found by a court or jury to be = just.=94

Fair enough. But what happens when the giver backs = out,=20 against the will of the recipient? Isaac says that, generally speaking, = if the=20 giver is the one who gets cold feet, then he gives up the right to the=20 ring.

Of course, the facts surrounding = =93engagement-ring law,=94 says=20 Isaac, are rarely so simple. Someone officially breaking off the = engagement=20 could, of course, say that he or she had no choice, that the other = person=92s=20 hitherto undiscovered behavior was so intolerable, for example, that it=20 effectively ended the engagement. Isaac says application of this law is = =93rarely=20 black and white, but almost always gray.=94

And is the lawyer in blue jeans always in blue = jeans?=20 Indeed. =93I have 50 pair,=94 he says. =93I have to wear them. People = know me, and if=20 I don=92t, they call me out on=20 it.=94

Law=20 Blog

Engagement Rings and the Law

By Ashby Jones