The relationship is over. The wedding may be off. Now one very expensive question remains: Who gets the ring?

You might assume the answer is simple. The person who bought it gets it back, right? Or maybe once the ring is given, it belongs to the person who received it forever.

In Florida, neither answer is necessarily correct.

What happens to an engagement ring can depend on one major detail: Did the marriage actually happen?

 

An Engagement Ring Is Not Exactly a Normal Gift

Think about a birthday present. If someone gives you a necklace for your birthday and you break up six months later, they generally cannot demand it back simply because the relationship ended.

An engagement ring is different.

Florida courts have recognized an engagement ring as a gift given on the implied condition that the couple will marry. In other words, the ring is connected to a promise of marriage.

That distinction becomes important when the engagement ends before anyone makes it down the aisle.

What If the Wedding Never Happens?

This is where things get interesting.

In Gill v. Shively, a Florida appellate court addressed a dispute involving an engagement ring after the woman who received it decided not to go through with the marriage. The person who gave the ring sued for its return.

The court explained that an engagement ring may be recovered by the person who gave it when the recipient ends the engagement or when both parties mutually agree to end it.

That does not necessarily mean every broken engagement automatically ends with the ring going back to the person who purchased it. Who ended the engagement and the circumstances surrounding it can matter.

So, before you toss the ring across the room dramatically, sell it, or assume it is yours to keep, it may be worth finding out where you legally stand.

What If You Actually Got Married?

Now the answer changes. Once the couple gets married, the condition attached to the engagement ring has been fulfilled: the marriage happened.

If the couple later gets divorced, Florida courts have generally treated an engagement ring given before marriage as the recipient's nonmarital property.

Florida divorce courts distinguish between marital and nonmarital property when dividing a couple's assets, and property acquired before the marriage is generally treated differently from property acquired during it.

So, if your spouse proposed with a ring, you got married, and years later you are getting divorced, the engagement ring generally does not suddenly become something that has to be divided simply because the marriage is ending.

But I Paid for It!

This is probably where some people start thinking, Wait a minute. I spent thousands of dollars on that ring.

Understandably, the price of an engagement ring can make ownership a particularly emotional issue. But after the marriage occurs, the fact that one spouse originally purchased the ring does not necessarily give that spouse the right to take it back during the divorce.

Florida courts have specifically reversed divorce judgments that improperly included engagement rings in the marital-property distribution.

In other words, buying the ring and owning the ring after marriage are not necessarily the same thing.

What If the Ring Is a Family Heirloom?

This one can feel even more personal.

Maybe the ring did not come from a jewelry store at all. Maybe it belonged to a grandmother, great-grandmother, or another member of the family, and everyone assumed it would return to that side of the family.  

Emotionally, that may make perfect sense. Legally, however, calling an engagement ring a "family heirloom" does not automatically mean the person who gave it gets it back after divorce.

A Florida appellate court has specifically rejected the idea that an engagement ring should receive special treatment simply because it was considered an heirloom. The court instead looked at the ring's legal classification as property.

That is one reason valuable or sentimental family jewelry should be handled carefully before it is given as an engagement ring.

So, Who Gets the Ring?

The simplest way to think about it is this:

Engaged but never married? The engagement ring may still be considered a conditional gift, and whether it must be returned can depend on the circumstances surrounding the end of the engagement.

Married and now getting divorced? The condition was fulfilled when the marriage occurred, and an engagement ring given before the marriage is generally considered the recipient's nonmarital property.

Of course, unusual circumstances can make property disputes more complicated. When the ring was given, why it was given, and whether there were agreements between the parties may all affect a particular case.

Have Questions About Property in a Florida Divorce?

An engagement ring might be small enough to fit in your hand, but that does not mean the disagreement surrounding it will be.

If you are thinking about divorce in Florida, we can help you find out whether we are the right fit. Call us at 850-362-7228, or complete the form on our website and we will call you.

Written by Sophia Thephasdin. Reviewed for legal accuracy by Matthew Ausley, Attorney.