Tag Archive for: Engagement Ring

What to Do With That Diamond Ring

Don’t know what to do with that engagement bling on your finger now that you are divorced?

Why not sell it?  And website Worthy,wants to help you.

Worthy buys and sells jewelry, and holds online auctions for diamond engagement rings.  The company says it understands the journey that its customers have been on.

/by James J. Gross

Selling Your Engagement Ring

We found another way to raise money for your divorce.  Worthy.com is a website that has online auctions where professional jewelry buyers will bid for the diamond in your engagement ring.

Unlike mining diamonds from the earth, which can harm indigenous peoples and the environment, Worthy.com mines the largest cache of diamonds on earth – us.  After all, there is no physical difference between a new diamond and a used diamond.

Worthy.com will grade your diamond, take pictures and post it for auction.

/by James J. Gross

Suing for the Engagement Ring

By Michael F. Callahan

Mr. Dockendorf gave Ms. McGrath a two carat diamond engagement ring valued at $26,000 when he proposed.   Alas, the engagement was broken off and the marriage never occurred.

Dockendorf sued for return of the ring or its value.  McGrath moved to dismiss the suit contending the suit was barred by  Va. Code sec 8.01-220 which prohibits suits to recover damages for breach of promise to marry.

The Circuit Court held for Dockendorf and the Supreme Court affirmed.   The Court explained that the plain meaning of the words of the statute did not bar a suit to recover a gift made on the condition of marriage if that condition failed.  The statute barred actions for general  damages caused by the breach itself — injury to the affection and wounded pride, loss of opportunity, impaired prospect of marrying another, etc.

The Court did not discuss it, but the result was good for the diamond industry.  A prudent suitor might hesitate to spend big on an engagement ring if he could not recover the ring if his intended broke off the engagement — without throwing the ring at him in the process.

McGrath v. Dockendorf (2016)

/by James J. Gross

Texter Beware

Louis J. Billittier Jr. bought a diamond engagement ring for his fiancé. It was almost 3 carats and it cost him over $50,000.

Then he broke off the engagement by text message. And he followed it up with another one, possibly trying to calm her down, which he now wishes he had never sent.

He said, “Plus you get a $50,000 parting ring. Enough for a down payment on a house.”

Under New York law, the man usually gets the engagement ring back if there is no wedding. But when Louis decided he wanted the ring back, Judge Russell P. Busglia found “The text messages … have persuaded this court that it is highly probable that a valid gift was given to her after the engagement was terminated.” She gets to keep the ring.

/by James J. Gross