When wedding plans turn sour, unwilling brides should resist any urge to toss out the engagement ring, the NSW Supreme Court has determined.
The court today dismissed an appeal by Vicky Papathanasopoulos against an earlier decision that had ordered her to compensate ex-fiance Andrew Vacopoulos $15,250 for the value of a discarded engagement ring.
Ms Papathanasopoulos had appealed on the grounds that after she called off the wedding and tried to give back the ring, Mr Vacopoulos had told her she could keep it.
A few days later, Ms Papathanasopoulos told her father to dispose of the ring, along with photographs and other mementos of the failed relationship, which he threw in the garbage.
Mr Vacopoulos subsequently found out the ring had been disposed of, prompting him to launch legal action in a Manly court for compensation.
In a written judgment, Justice Rex Smart said in the eyes of the law Ms Papathanasopoulos was holding her ex-fiance’s property.
“I do not accept (the) contention that once (Mr Vacopoulos) … left the engagement ring on the table it became her property to keep or dispose of as she wished,” Justice Smart said.
The court found that if a woman refuses without legal justification to marry her fiance she cannot keep and must return any engagement ring.
By turning down the offer of marriage, Ms Papathanasopoulos had rejected the “conditional gift” of the ring, the court found.
“Upon … rejecting the gift she became a bailee of that item (the ring) so long as she had it in her control,” Mr Smart said.
“It is not open to a bailee to cause the item bailed to be thrown into the garbage bin.
“Holding a small item, such as an engagement ring, is not a great chore.”
He rejected the claim that when Mr Vacopoulos told his ex-fiancee she could keep the ring it became an “absolute gift”, as there was evidence it was said in a bid to salvage the relationship.