Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Michigan

If there is nothing written in the will or trust that would leave the wedding rings to the granddaughter then she has no legal claim to them. With nothing in writing, this amounts to a gift. In order for there to a valid gift three things need to be met, there needs to be intent to gift the property, delivery of the gifted property, and acceptance of the gifted property.

Here, it sounds like there might have been intent to gift at one time and obviously the granddaughter accepted the gift. You might be able to claim that because of the debts that the mother-in-law revoked her intent to make the gift.

However, that is not the strongest defense to defeat a claim that the rings were gifted. The strongest defense is that there was never any actual or constructive delivery. It is obvious there was no actual delivery of the rings to the granddaughter. Constructive delivery would involve a symbolic delivery. This might be like giving the keys to a car to someone you are gifting a car too. It would be very difficult to prove that the mother-in-law constructively delivered the rings because there is very little reason that can be shown for such a delivery. If she actually wanted the granddaughter to have the rings she would have put it in writing or actually gave them to her.