Suit for the Return of Engagement Gifts and Personal Property

[alpha1938]

i am in the process of filing a small claims suit against my ex-fiancee in a texas civil court for the return of engagement gifts and other personal property. i presented her with the engagement ring on 8/14/98. immediately afterward, i presented her with some items of art that were to be used to decorate the apartment that we planned to share. later that month we both moved our belongings into that apartment. during the spring of 1999 she asked me to leave. i left most of my personal property and the engagement gifts at the apartment because i thought the separation would be temporary. she later decided to end the engagement. my argument is that my personal property should be returned and that the engagement gifts were conditional gifts that should have been returned when the engagement ended. she argues that the engagement gifts were absolute gifts. please inform me of the strengths and weaknesses of each argument. also, please indicate helpful items of evidence that i could present in court. thanks.

 

[JETX]

First problem you are going to have is that this is clearly going to be a 'he said, she said' case. You are going to claim that the property is yours and should be returned, she will claim that the property was gifts (or maybe hers already) and she should keep them. That is going to be the biggest hurdle (one of many) that you are going to have. Since you brought the lawsuit, you have the burden of proof. You will have to 'swing the balance' to your side with 50% PLUS 1 of the evidence. And without that, you will lose.

Now, some of your other hurdles:
1) Your use of 'engagement gifts' and 'conditional gifts' is an interesting ploy. In fact, these are gifts. And the fact that you admit they were gifts, either to her singly or to the joint relationship (and no longer your exclusive property) is a problem. You will have to PROVE that each and every item was brought to the communal property with the express conditional statement to the effect of "This property remains mine, unless we marry, and then it will be joint property".
2) Obviously, any specific personal property that is not claimed to be jointly owned (or a direct gift) should be returned to you since the ownership is not a question.
3) As to the 'engagement ring'.. that is going to be an interesting argument. In order to prevail, one of the things that you will need to successfully argue is that the promise to marry was breached by her (at her request). If you can prove that to a court, then you might recover the ring on a 'breach of promise' principle.

All in all, this is NOT going to be a simple matter to litigate and I suggest that you consider getting appropriate counsel, either as representation or for guidance.