I have written about when you do NOT get to keep the ring. The Mississippi Supreme Court has affirmed a time when you do…

In the case of Cummins v. Goolsby, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the “fiancee”  keeping the ring even though the parties did not get married. However, there was a catch.  The groom-to-be was married to another at the time of the engagement!

In fact at the time of the appeal, the groom-to-be was still married. The Court’s rationale was that conditioning a gift on marriage when one cannot lawfully marry violates public policy and constitutes unclean hands. Thus, the chancellor did not err when awarding the ring to the now “ex-fiancee.”

Also, the Court ruled that the groom-to-be now father, was not entitled to a credit of the value of the ring against child support owed for the child he had with his “ex-fiancee.”

There are several lessons to be learned from this case…

Matthew Thompson is a child custody and matrimonial lawyer in Mississippi.