with Marianne Deada Solicitor Digital Age Lawyers

When two people are married or in an established defacto relationship , they apply to the court for a divorce order to legalise the ending of marriage . If parties cannot agree on the division of their assets and the issue of an engagement ring is put forward , the court may determine the engagement ring to be part of the asset pool which will be divided pursuant to The

Family Law Act 1975 . However , an engagement ring is approached differently if you are a newly engaged couple and have not applied for a defacto relationship or you have not gotten married .

When a couple is engaged and the relationship breaks down before the wedding , the question of what happens to the engagement ring might arise . Should the ring be returned to the partner that proposed or does it stay with the partner that was proposed to ? What the NSW Court decided This question arose in the case of

Papanthanasapoulous v Vacopoulos

( 2007 ). In this case Mr V was seeking compensation for the $ 15,000 engagement ring he had used to propose to Ms P two weeks prior to the relationship breaking down . In this case Ms P had disposed of the ring and could not return the actual ring .

The answer to this question was found in the appeal to the Supreme Court when Justice Smart identified engagement rings , in these circumstances , as conditional gifts and not gifts . The distinction here being that a conditional gift , unlike a gift , is given on the basis that some condition be fulfilled by the recipient of the gift . When a partner proposes with an engagement ring , the condition for keeping the ring is that the couple gets married .

If the relationship breaks down before the wedding and the recipient of the ring decides not to go through with the marriage , the ring should be returned . Are there any exceptions ? There are legal exceptions to this when the recipient of the ring has some

justification for not proceeding with the marriage , such as violent behaviour or infidelity on the part of the partner that proposed . In these cases , it can be justified that the recipient of the ring was not the one at fault for the relationship breaking down and is therefore unable to fulfil the condition because of the other partners conduct . What should I do ? If you have found yourself in this position , it is important to remember that court is not the best place to have this issue resolved . Courts can be very lengthy and expensive processes , and the cost and inconvenience of this can often outweigh any benefit for either party relative to the engagement ring ownership . It is always recommended to have the issue resolved amicably between the parties considering the information provided in this article .

( NB : Marianne Deada is a solicitor under the supervision of Katherine Hawes , the Principal Solicitor of Digital Age Lawyers .)