Breach of Promise to Marry: An Outdated Legal Concept

Can you sue someone for breaking a promise to marry? In years gone by, the answer was 'yes.' A jilted fiancé could file a lawsuit for breach of promise to marry. However, today, such claims have been abolished in most jurisdictions, including Minnesota, which enacted a statute against these claims in 1978. But that hasn't always stopped someone from trying.

In 2000, the Minnesota Court of Appeals heard a case involving a former girlfriend who sued her married boyfriend. She accused him of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, battery, fraud, and misrepresentation. She claimed to have suffered psychological and emotional damages after he allegedly coerced her into having an unwanted abortion by promising to marry her once his divorce was final. The District Court ruled in favor of the boyfriend, and the appeals court upheld that decision, affirming that such lawsuits are prohibited in Minnesota.

Before the law changed, things looked different. In 1958, the Minnesota Supreme Court took on the case of Meemken and O’Hara, centered on a breach of promise to marry. The trial court awarded Meemken $10,000, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court after O'Hara's appeal.

This case featured sensational elements, including considerable evidence of a sexual relationship, which was scandalous for the 1950s. Meemken, married and 34 when she met O'Hara in 1945, engaged in an affair that resulted in pregnancy—a societal outrage of that era. Her child was born, and she later divorced her husband in 1949. Eventually, she moved in with O'Hara and became pregnant for the second time. O'Hara proposed, but the relationship soured in 1953. After an argument, he asked her to leave and later obtained a court order for her eviction. O'Hara’s subsequent marriage to someone else was the ultimate betrayal.