Massachusetts’s highest court reversed a longstanding ruling by saying an engagement ring must be returned to the buyer if the wedding falls through.

There’s a long-standing debate about what happens when an engagement is called off: Who should get to keep the ring? After 65 years of court debates in Massachusetts, a ruling has been made the fate of one very expensive engagement ring.

The ruling marks a departure from a decades-old state rule requiring courts to assess who was responsible for a breakup.

Who gets to keep an engagement ring if a wedding is called off? That’s what the highest court in Massachusetts was asked to decide with a $70,000 ring at the center of the dispute.

A man who purchased a ring for an extravagant $70,000 will be getting it back from his ex-fiancée after breaking off the engagement when he grew wary of infidelity in the relationship, per

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has overturned a 65-year-old rule that required judges to identify and give engagement rings to the wronged party in a break-up. “More than six decades ago, we recognized that an antenuptial ring generally is understood to be a conditional gift and determined that the donor may recover the ring

Massachusetts’ highest court reversed a longstanding ruling, saying an engagement ring must be returned if the wedding falls through. After a year of dating that included trips to the US Virgin Islands and Italy,

The ruling puts a definitive end to a six-decade-old state rule that required judges to try to identify who was to blame for the end of the relationship.