Who Gets the Ring When the Engagement’s Over?

Unless you have been living under a rock…

on the bottom of the ocean…

and speak only Latin…

You have heard that Taylor’s engaged to Travis.  

And I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that both of their attorneys are prooooooo’lly drawing up a nice tight little written agreement that clearly states where Tay’s ring goes if the knot never gets tied.  

But what about the rest of us commoners?  

Who gets the ice if the relationship goes cold and wedding bells never ring?

Well, like so many legal questions, it depends. 

Courts across the U.S. all consider an engagement ring a gift.  But most of them (including my home state of Texas) consider the ring a “conditional gift.”  A conditional gift is one where the gift giver gives the gift to the receiver with the expectation that some future event or action will take place. If the agreed-upon event (marriage) does not occur, the gift-giver has the right to get the gift back.  Many states follow the no-fault, conditional gift approach and award the engagement ring to the one who proposed in a broken engagement.

But!  Some courts (including Texas) have held that it isn't fair for the person who caused the broken engagement to keep the engagement ring.  (Like…if a guy proposes with a ring and then cheats on the gal…why should he get back the very ring that he gave her as a gift?)  This approach is called "fault-based," meaning that if the ring's recipient caused the broken engagement, the ring will likely be awarded to the proposer.  If it was the proposer who was at fault for the marriage not happening, then the receiver of the ring gets to keep the ring and usually ends up turning it into some earrings or hocking it to pay for an “Sayonara, Sucker!” trip with one’s besties.

Though the fault-based approach seems to be the fairer way to go…it can get a little dicey.  I mean, think about it, what if someone calls off a wedding because they decide they don’t like the other person’s kid?  Or because the person learns that the other person can’t have kids?  Or that the other person spent time in prison and never told their soon-to-be-spouse?  Or maybe one person just has severe halitosis, and the other just cannot deal with it anymore.  Who’s “at fault” in those situations?

And finally, who gets the ring in the event of divorce?  Well, that one’s easy.  The condition (marriage) was, in fact, met, so the receiver of the ring keeps it.

Tay Tay and Travis…I wish you well.  You’ve got this.