After 6 years of litigation, an elderly man won the lawsuit to get back his valuable engagement ring after breaking off the engagement because he believed his fiancee had feelings for someone else.
Expensive ring at the heart of Massachusetts lawsuit
A Massachusetts court (USA) on November 7 ruled that a failed bride must return her engagement ring worth 70,000 USD (1.77 billion VND) to her ex-fiancé, after the planned marriage was canceled.
Bruce Johnson, 67, has been in a legal battle with his ex-girlfriend Caroline Settino, 59, after they broke off their engagement, Reuters reported. Johnson is a former engineer at Siemens, while Settino is a retired teacher.
Mr Johnson called off their planned 2017 wedding after discovering text messages between Ms Settino and another man he suspected she was having an affair with. Ms Settino denied the allegations and said the man was a longtime friend.
In 2018, he sued to get back the Tiffany & Co. ring he had given him, but a judge found him guilty and liable. However, an appeals court overturned that ruling, leading to the latest ruling from the state high court.
In its ruling, the court said it was updating its approach to similar cases and joining a "modern trend" in which many states treat engagement rings as gifts that must be returned to the giver.
Ms Settino’s lawyer Nicholas Rosenberg said the ruling was disappointing, and that “the idea of an engagement ring as a conditional gift is rooted in outdated notions.” Mr Johnson’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Ring recovery lawsuits are essentially the last remaining form of litigation recognized by U.S. courts regarding annulments, after states in the 1930s began abolishing the "emotional comfort" claims that women could previously pursue when a promise of marriage was annulled.
Most states initially adopted the approach taken by a Massachusetts court in 1959, which held that the giver of an engagement ring was entitled to its return if he or she was not "at fault" in canceling the wedding.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cu-ong-thang-kien-doi-lai-nhan-dinh-hon-70000-usd-185241109093941416.htm
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