Breach of promise

Breach of promise is a common-law tort, abolished in many jurisdictions. It was also called breach of contract to marry, and the remedy awarded was known as heart balm.

From at least the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, many jurisdictions regarded a man's promise of engagement to marry a woman as a legally binding contract. If the man subsequently changed his mind, he would be said to be in "breach" of this promise and could be subject to litigation for damages.

The converse of that was seldom true. The concept that "it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind" had at least some basis in law (though a woman might pay a high social price for exercising this privilege). Unless a dowry of money or property had changed hands, or the woman could be shown to have become engaged to a man only to enable her use of his money, a man could rarely recover in a "breach of promise" suit against a woman if he was even allowed to file one.

Changing social attitudes toward morals have led to a decline in the number of legal actions in response to "jilting". Most jurisdictions, at least in the English-speaking common-law world, have become increasingly reluctant to intervene in cases of personal relationships not involving the welfare of children or actual violence. Many of them have repealed all laws regarding such eventualities, and in others, the statute allowing such an action may technically remain on the books, but the action has become very rare and unlikely to be pursued with any probability of success. Arising in its stead are judicial opinions and/or statutes permitting a breach-of-contract action for wedding expenses incurred when the nuptials are called off or for loss of employment, moving and living expenses incurred by one party as a result of an engagement, which is later broken.