The Utah Court of Appeals has rejected a case of vasectomy remorse, ruling that a man who was jilted by his fiancée cannot recover the costs of having and reversing the procedure from her.

While Layne Hess was engaged to Jody Johnston, she asked him to have a vasectomy. He complied with her request, but, after about a year of dating and with a wedding date set, Johnston broke off the engagement.

Since any “gift” given during an engagement, Hess argued in a restitution suit, carries an implied condition of marriage, Johnston was liable for his medical expenses. Hess also sought reimbursement for an Alaska cruise, a trip to France and a vehicle for Johnston's son.

The appeals court recognized “the possibility that some economic claims arising out of a failed engagement” may be viable. But it affirmed a trial court's dismissal of Hess's case.

“If we were to imply a condition on all gifts given during the engagement period, every gift would be recoverable regardless of the size, cost, significance, or nature of the gift, and without regard to the surrounding circumstances under which the gift was given,” it said in a June 21 opinion.

The Utah Supreme Court abolished claims for breach of promise of marriage in Jackson v. Brown, 904 P.2d 685 (1995). No precedent, however, had addressed whether Utah allows recovery of engagement gifts under a conditional gift theory.

The appeals court did not definitively decide that issue, finding instead that Hess had no case as a a matter of law because he had failed to allege

any facts that could demonstrate, either expressly, by the circumstances, or by the nature of the gifts that his intent was to condition the gifts on the marriage taking place.

“The vasectomy was for the purpose of mutuality in birth control,” Judge Carolyn B. McHugh wrote for the court. Johnston had already undergone a tubal ligation, but was still concerned about getting pregnant.

“Under the facts of this case, it is not necessary to address whether a vasectomy, undertaken by one person in a relationship, can ever be a 'gift' to the other person in the relationship,” McHugh noted.

Some courts around the country have allowed conditional gift claims involving engagement ring. In Philadelphia, the ex-fiancé of a TV anchor recently sued her for the return of the $78,000 he had given her. But Johnston avoided that issue by giving her ring back to Hess when she broke up with him.

Unlike an engagement ring, McHugh said, the nature of the gifts Hess gave his fiancée, including the vasectomy, “carry no inherent inference that they were conditioned on the marriage.”

By Matthew Heller
6/28/07