Before you promise your partner that you are going to marry him or her, I want you to know that failure to fulfill that promise of marriage carries huge legal consequences, it does not matter that you made that promise out of a joke or you were not serious when you made that promise, in as much as you have made the promise to marry a person you are under strict legal obligations and you must fulfill that promise of marriage, failure to do that will put you in the law harm’s way.
A promise to marry is seen in law as a contract which can either be oral, expressed or written and breach of a contract attracts consequences against the person who committed the breach and this is also applicable in the breach of the contract of promise to marry. Even if it is a love story gone wrong, it is first regarded as a contract in law and contracting parties must live up to the contractual terms.
Promise to marry is legally binding on both parties in as much as the parties meet up the legal criteria of making such a contract which is the ages of the parties is very crucial and there must also be consideration furnished for it to be legally enforceable.
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In the case of Mabamije V. Otto (2016) LPELR 26058 (SC) Mr. Otto promised to marry Ms. Mabamije but he didn’t fulfill the promise. Ms. Mabamije sued Mr. Otto for the beach of the promise, she claimed 20 million Naira as damages, she also prayed the court for an order to compel Mr. Otto to fulfill the promise of marrying her.
She won the case at the high court but case went on to Supreme Court, although Ms. Mabamije lost the case at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court due to technicalities of the law of estoppel (which we may not go into details today) but the courts emphasized that promise to marry is a contract and parties must live up to the contract terms and breach of that promise carries legal consequences.
Also, in the case of Miss Chinye A.M. Ezennah v. Alhaji Mahmoud I. Atta 3PLR (2004) 40 (SC) popularly quoted as Ezennah v. Atta, the Supreme Court per Niki Tobi Jsc stated inter alia “…. an agreement or contract to marry is a bilateral affair between a man and a woman, both parties must be ad idem in respect of any collateral transaction relating to the intended marriage and breach of that promise is enforceable against the person who breached”.
