Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

Re: Can I keep the ring?

if its a gift, she keeps it

Re: Can I keep the ring?

I've never handled such a case as this, but I recalled that the top PA court recently decided this issue and actually modified the law. Although it wasn't completely clear, there were some precedents indicating that the ring giver couldn't get the ring back if he was the one who called it off. But the court, in the decision of Lindh v. Surman, 560 Pa. 1 (1999), adopted the "no-fault" approach. I think this is morally the right thing in any event. The rest of this note is from the Court's decision (which was a 4-3 split, by the way):

We agree with those jurisdictions that have looked towards the development of no-fault divorce law for a principle to decide engagement ring cases, and the inherent weaknesses in any

fault-based system lead us to adopt a no-fault approach to resolution of engagement ring disputes.

Having adopted this no-fault principle, we still must address the original argument that the donor should not get return of the

ring when the donor terminates the engagement. Such a rule would be consonant with a no-fault approach, it is argued, because

it need not look at the reasons for termination of the engagement; if there is proof that the donor ended the relationship, then he has frustrated the occurrence of the condition and cannot benefit from that. In other words, we are asked to adopt a no-fault approach that would always deny the donor return of the ring where the donor breaks the engagement.

We decline to adopt this modified no-fault position, and hold that the donor is entitled to return of the ring even if the donor broke the engagement. We believe that the benefits from the certainty of our rule outweigh its negatives, and that a strict no-fault approach is less flawed than a fault-based theory or modified no-fault position.