Your ex can sue you for promising him or her marriage
Your ex can sue you for promising him or her marriage – Lawyer explains
Can your ex-girlfriend sue you for promising him or her marriage
Yes, theoretically a former romantic partner could sue for a broken promise of marriage. However, whether or not such a lawsuit would have any legal merit is an entirely different question. A successful lawsuit could only be brought in jurisdictions that provide for a cause of action called ‘breach of promise to marry’. The available remedies would vary considerably between jurisdictions.
Which article in Ghana’s Constitution shows an ex-girlfriend can sue for the failed promise to marry?
There is no specific article in the Ghana Constitution that addresses this situation, but rather a common law cause of action for breach of promise to marry which has been adopted by some courts in Ghana.
Generally, a promise does need to be made in writing for such a lawsuit to be successful in Ghana, which further complicates matters.
Lawyer Ernestina Obboh Botchwey has explained that ‘jilted and broken-hearted’ ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends can sue their former partners if they had promised to marry them.
She said once an individual proposes marriage and the other party accepts, there is a contract has been established under the law.
However, failure to carry out the said promise constitutes a breach of contract.
Ms. Botchwey noted that aggrieved partners can sue for damages or special damages and get compensation from their partners for the harm done to them by their ex-girlfriends or ex-boyfriends.
“In the law, we see that the promise to marry is just like a contract. If someone says I will marry you and you also say I will, then that’s a contract. It’s an agreement and somebody has also accepted and agreed to marry you. So those two exchanges of promises translate into a contract. So if someone says I will marry you and then they say I will no longer marry you. The contract has been breached and that is why we say breach of contract to marry,” she stated.
She however stressed that one has to show proof in court that their ex actually promised to marry them and that the one sued( the defendant) can give a reasonable excuse why they failed to marry the partner they had promised to marry.
He added that the court will not force the person who made the promise to marry the other to carry out the marriage, but will ask them to pay compensation to the disappointed ex-partner.
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Source; Ghanaweb.com
