Man wins legal battle against ex and gets his expensive engagement ring

Rodney Ripley (54) asked his girlfriend Jennifer Rutten (50) to marry almost seven years ago, when he saw it big.

Ripley made his proposal in New York and with an engagement ring of almost 35,000 euros but the fairy tale did not last and Ripley demanded his expensive ring back through the court.

It all looked beautiful, in December 5, 2011, Rodney Ripley from Wisconsin squatted down on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. In his hand he had a ring of the famous jeweller Tacori with a cushion cut diamond of 3 carat. For his fiancée, Jennifer Rutten, who worked at the American Red Cross in New York, where she also lived.

Less than a year later the relationship ran aground. The two did not get married and Rodney Ripley wanted to reclaim the engagement ring. “I was still getting hurricane Sandy, when he suddenly began to stalk me”, Rutten said. She refused to return the showpiece. Ripley then went to the Manhattan Supreme Court. The legal battle that take five years.

Ruttens lawyer William Costigan claimed that the ring was not worth 11,000 euros. Ripley presented the receipt to the judge, which amounted to 39,057.10 dollars (33,785.57 euros). He had the ring insured for 40,000 dollars (about 34,600 euros).

According to New York law, in such cases the donor is entitled to the engagement ring if it does not come to a marriage while the reasons for the relationship break do not matter.

Rutten tried to make her agree with the statement that the court in Manhattan was not competent and with the argument that Ripley intimidated her emotionally. But after five years of legal batters, the judge finally awarded the engagement ring to donor Rodney Ripley.