After a Breakup, Ring Disputes Sometimes Land in Court
A law professor who has written on the subject of court disputes over engagement rings has found that her expertise has made her a popular expert over who gets to keep the diamond.
“I probably get an e-mail every two or three weeks asking for my advice on this question,” Hofstra law professor Joanna Grossman told the New York Times.
The answer to the question in most jurisdictions, the newspaper says, is that the buyer gets the ring back, even if he or she instigated the breakup. The ring is viewed as a gift conditioned on a marriage taking place.
Pittsburgh lawyer Joanne Ross Wilder summarizes the legal theory this way: “If you have no-fault divorce, you must have no-fault engagements,” she told the Times. Wilder won a 1999 precedent-setting ruling requiring a ring to be returned to the person who bought it.
In a more recent case, billionaire investor Gerald Tsai, who has since died, was arguing over the return of a $243,000 engagement ring he gave to Sharon Bush, the former wife of the president’s brother Neil Bush.
Sharon Bush was represented by matrimonial lawyer Raoul Felder. “I can’t understand how a man is not embarrassed to ask for his ring back,” he told the Times. “It always amazes me what happened to chivalry.”
The case was resolved earlier this year. Raoul said he can’t disclose the terms, but his client has since been seen wearing the ring.
