YOU PROMISED TO MARRY ME

People discover that the love they once held dear was nothing more than hollow promises, breaking their hearts. You may as well comprehend the heartache these people go through if you have ever been in a relationship that you were positive would end in marriage. The feeling of having to start over, the anxiety of not knowing what went wrong, the fear of putting one’s trust in another person, and the associated social embarrassment for some.

How can a man pop the question to a woman in public, post it on social media, invite his kinsmen for a family introduction, and then calls the woman to tell her that the wedding is off? Even worse, he just abandons her. Additionally upsetting is when a woman who has accepted your intention to marry her abruptly changes her mind for unknown cause.

You might be wondering, what is the law business in people’s relationship. It would interest you to know that offering and accepting of one’s engagement ring can be seen as a contract to marry, and contracts in law are binding. Allowing a person to spend extravagantly on you after such person has told you of his/her intention to marry you, and constantly leading them on, introducing him/her to people as your betrothed can be seen as implied contract to marry. An implied contract simply means a contract that is not written. A contract that stems from the way one behaves.

A breach of this contract is known in law as “Breach of Promise to Marry”.

An individual is entitled to damages whenever they can prove that the other person breached the contract. The Court cannot force the other person to marry you, thus this is the only relief it can offer you. For the record “damages” refers to monetary or financial relief in this context. It is the entire amount that the Court mandates the person to pay you in recompense for the trauma, lost time, and harm (health-wise, financial, emotional and psychological).

How to establish that there was a “promise to marry” is the primary problem here. To put it another way, there needs to be sufficient evidence to persuade the judge that the individual in question made a marriage promise to you before breaking it. The court is not swayed by public opinions or feelings, or what is evident on social media. The facts put forth before the court are used to reach its decision. A man cannot claim breach of promise to marry if the woman never agreed to a proposal. His significant expenses on her and her family’s assurance of interest does not grant him marriage.

Similarly, a contract cannot be said have been breached, if a young lady believes the word of an elderly woman who promises that her son will marry her. It makes no difference if the young lady turned down suitors in anticipation of the fulfilment of this promise. No contract is breached if the young man chooses not to marry her, a contract requires an offer and acceptance of the actual people involved.

Exchanges of romantic and affectionate messages are also not enough to prove “contract to marry”.

How does one establish “breach of promise to marry”?

I do not think anyone writes down and gets the other person to sign a document stating they want to marry them. Ultimately, what is left are oral statements, but this time they are supported by more tangible evidence.

Offering and acceptance of an engagement ring. A contract to marry has been “offered” when you get down on your knees, show off your engagement ring, and ask the woman to marry you. If she happily says “yes” and places the ring on her index finger, she has “accepted” you offer, and you have won her hand in marriage. If any of you decide to postpone or call it off for tenuous reasons, the court is ready to carry out justice for the aggrieved party.

Family Introduction: If you and your family decide to visit the woman’s family and declare your intentions to marry in order to show her that you are serious about her, a contract for marriage has been entered.

Posting on social media: A social media photo shoot between two people in love that they post with caption like “LOML’ or “Can’t wait to do forever with you” can also result in contract to marry.

In summary, when someone decides to break your heart, you can only take legal actions when  there was a contract to marry.