CHRONICLE OF THE COURTS
The engagement ring

A question which appears new was posed before the 7th chamber of the civil court, chaired by Mr. Reules, and it was argued by Mr. Duthil, president of the Bordeaux bar, and Mr. Vaunois, lawyer in Paris. Here is the species, which does not lack a certain romanticism. You can only find beautiful novels at the Palais de Justice.
Mrs. Vve Veysset, who lives in Bordeaux, had an eldest son, Georges-Pierre-René, who, in 1916, was an aviator quartermaster. In November, he found himself designated to go to Salonika. He prepared to leave without a second thought, and yet he left behind in Paris a young girl, Germaine Laurans, to whom he had just become engaged. Like everyone else, above all, he intended to do his duty to the end. And then, what did he have to fear? Nothing other than death, but no one thought about that.
Before leaving, Mile Germaine Laurans had accepted a pledge that was worth all the oaths: she had allowed a pretty engagement ring to pass on her finger, brilliant and emeralds mounted on platinum, which she had chosen and made herself. put to his taste, paid to a jeweler in Bordeaux 12,600 francs.
However, the separation seemed so cruel to the young aviator that after eight months of stay on the stinking banks of the Vardar, he wrote to his fiancée that he could no longer stand it and was going to ask his superiors for permission to come there. marry. “Often women vary.” What was his surprise to receive a more than cold response. Miss Germaine Laurans wrote to him that there was no hurry and that she would wait for him as long as necessary. What impression did this postponement produce on the young man's mind? We will never know. On November 15, 1917 Georges-Pierre-René Veysset disappeared in an aerial combat near Monastir.
And what happened to the engagement ring? Mr. and Mrs. Leguay intended to keep it. They remained deaf to Ms. Veysset's complaints, acting in her personal name and in the name of her other minor children, brothers and sister of the deceased. Mrs. Veysset could not do anything until her son's death had been legally recognized. It was by judgment of the Bordeaux court rendered on December 9, 1920, transcribed in the civil status registers on January 3, 1921.
Then, Ms. Veysset began the trial which has just been judged. What makes this body new is the “position of the question”, as they say in Parliament. Ordinarily, in the event of a breach of promise of marriage, we rely on article 1382 of the Civil Code: Any act whatsoever of a man which causes damage to another, obliges the person through whose fault it happened to do so. fix. In the present case, Mr. Duthil, on behalf of Mrs. Veysset, invoked article 1088: Any donation made in favor of the marriage will be void if the fact does not follow.
The ring had undoubtedly been given “in favor of the marriage”. It therefore had to be returned. Yes, but “if the marriage had not followed”, to remain in the very terms of the Code, is it not because there had been a case of force majeure, the death of the sergeant Veysset ? The judgment did not admit it. Given that Miss Laurans had herself postponed the marriage, while the fiancé expressed the express desire to carry it out, the breakup was, therefore, almost, if not completely, acquired. On the other hand, notes the judgment, were not the engagement of Mile Laurans and her marriage to Mr. Leguay celebrated eight months before the official recognition of Mr. Veysset's death?
The rupture therefore does not result from this case of force majeure which would have been the disappearance of the aviator. It is the effect of the will of Mile Germaine Laurans. For these reasons, the 7th Chamber ordered her and her husband, Mr. Leguay, to return the ring offered by Mr. Veyvsset, under penalty of a penalty of 400 francs per day of delay.
Ms Veysset requested that she be awarded the sum of 500 francs in damages. She was disappointed on this point.
For their part, Mr. and Mrs. Leguay demanded the return of the letters written by Miss Germaine Laurans to her first fiancé. The court replied that they are ill-founded to demand this restitution without at the same time offering to return those written by Mr. Veysset to Miss Laurans.