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Albinger v. Harris6/6/2002
either party lacks that assurance, for whatever reason, the engagement should be broken. No justification is needed. Either party may act. Fault, impossible to fix, does not count. Fierro, 465 N.W.2d at 672.
The Iowa court then concluded that: Like the Aronow court, this court believes fault, in an engagement setting, is irrelevant. We reject this "fault" approach.
This court adopts the "no fault" approach followed in a minority of jurisdictions. E.g., Brown v. Thomas, 127 Wis.2d 318, 379 N.W.2d 868 (App. 1985). "Since the major purpose of the engagement period is to allow a couple time to test the permanency of their feelings, it would seem highly ironic to penalize the donor for taking steps to prevent a possibly unhappy marriage . . . ." Gaden v. Gaden, 29 N.Y.2d 80, 88, 323 N.Y.S.2d 955, 962, 272 N.E.2d 471, 476 (1971). Fierro, 465 N.W.2d at 672.
Finally, the District Court concluded that ยงยง 27-1-602, MCA (referred to in the majority opinion as Montana's "heart balm" statute), is not applicable in an action to recover a gift made in contemplation of marriage. The District Court noted that the majority of jurisdictions have held that "heart balm" statutes bar actions for damages, such as humiliation, which arise as a consequence of breaching a promise to marry but have no effect with regard to recovery of gifts. Once again, the District Court was correct. In the Tomko annotation relied upon in most recent cases and cited by both parties in this case, she states:
In a number of states, the breach-of-promise action has been abolished, though it has generally been held that the recovery of engagement gifts does not fall among the barred actions. Statutes abolishing breach-of-promise suits are commonly referred to as "heart balm" statutes because they permit the former lovers' heartaches to heal without recourse to the courts. The purpose of the heart balm statutes was originally "to avert the perpetration of fraud by adventurers or adventuresses who were prone to use the threat of a breach of promise of marriage action to compel overapprehensive and naive defendants to make lucrative settlements in order to avoid embarrassing and lurid notoriety which accompanied litigation of this character." Most courts will not use these statutes, however, to protect a party who received an engagement gift under fraudulent circumstances, or where a conditional gift theory is to be applied. [Emphasis added.] 44 A.L.R. 5th at 27.
An example of the type of decision referred to in Tomko's annotation is Pavlicic v. Vogtsberger (Pa. 1957), 136 A.2d 127, 130, in which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that that state's "Heart Balm Act," while abolishing causes of action for breach of contract to marry, "in no way alters the law of conditional gifts."
What has been said so far in this Opinion is all that was necessary in order to resolve the issues presented to the District Court and to this Court on appeal. The District Court's findings were supported by substantial evidence and were not clearly erroneous. The District Court's conclusions of law were correct.
However, the majority is not content to review the issues presented based on the facts which were proven and the legal authorities which have been submitted. The majority instead, without any factual basis in the record, explores what it finds are "some American customs associated with engagement rings" and turns this simple property dispute based on traditional rules of gift law into a battle of the sexes with constitutional implications. Considering the significance we have now attached to this case, does it strike anyone else as odd that we haven't asked the parties for any i
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