A British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered a woman to reimburse her former fiancé more than $5,000 for an engagement ring after finding she likely kept or lost it following their breakup. The ring, worth about $4,860, was given during a 2020 engagement that ended in 2022, after which the applicant repeatedly asked for its return or repayment. The respondent claimed she could not find the ring and suggested at one point that her former partner had already taken it, but the tribunal found her messages inconsistent with that account. Based on those messages and the applicable law, the tribunal concluded engagement rings must generally be returned if the marriage does not occur, and that the applicant was entitled to either the ring or its value. Since the respondent said she no longer had it, she was ordered to repay the full purchase price plus fees. Did you know that under many Canadian provincial and American state laws an engagement ring is legally considered to be a “conditional gift,” which means that it is given on the condition that a marriage takes place? Thus, if a marriage never occurs, you are generally required to return the ring to the person who gifted it or reimburse them for its cost. This, admittedly, was news to us dear sexual subjects. Do you think this is governmental overreach?
Till Money Do Us Part
