Man Calls Off Wedding And Sues Ex-Fiance For Not Returning The $15,500 Engagement Ring

Preparing for a wedding is exhausting, but a broken engagement can be an extremely painful and confusing experience. A man in Australia called off his wedding ten days before the event. Now, he filed a case against his ex-fiancé for not returning the expensive engagement ring.

The man showered his fiance with luxury gifts during their relationship including an engagement ring worth $15,500. However, when he ended the relationship just ten days before the wedding, Edwin Shien Bing Toh demanded fiancé Winnie Chu Ling Su to give all the presents back.

Ling Su, however, doesn’t want to return the engagement ring. The man filed a case against his former partner in a local court in New South Wales. The court documents reveal that the ex-couple first met in 2015 through a mutual friend. They started to go out and planned to marry each other.

It's unclear why the man canceled the wedding but he did it just ten days before the event and everything was already prepared.

A few months after meeting each other, they agreed to open a joint bank account. They also bought a diamond engagement ring for $15,500, a male wedding band worth $500 and a female wedding band for $800. During the relationship, he gave various expensive gifts to his girlfriend including a Longines watch, an iPhone, a diamond necklace, a Samsonite suitcase, and a Louis Vuitton handbag. All the items cost about $5,000.

Months after the proposal, the man canceled the wedding, and he said that everything that belongs to each party should be returned. The woman agreed and asked for his shoes, his wallet, the wedding clothes and the presents her family bought for the man’s parents.

However, when the man asked for his ex-girlfriend to return three rings and five items, she refused. Hence, he brought the case to the local court.

Yet according to a court document, magistrate Rodney Brender found that Toh returned the items to the woman because he felt guilty about calling off the wedding. Though the law about who gets the engagement ring when the wedding is canceled is still unclear, the engagement ring is considered a gift.

The law requires three elements for something to be considered a gift – the giver’s intent to give the item as a present, the giver’s actual giving of the gift, and the receiver’s acceptance.

Moreover, Brender examined English and Australian cases and concluded that since it is no longer allowed to sue for breach of a promise to marry, the engagement ring is considered an unconditional gift.

“An engagement ring still retained the character of a pledge or something to bind the bargain or contract to marry and was given on the understanding the party who breaks the contract must return it.”

“If a woman who received the ring refuses to fulfill the condition of the gift, she must return it, but if the man, without a recognized legal justification, refused to carry out his promise of marriage he cannot demand the return of the engagement ring.”

He also refused the return of the other items, except for the wedding bands. These were ordered to be returned, according to reports.

Who do you think gets the engagement ring? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.