VANCOUVER — A former couple battling over an engagement ring squared off against one another in front of TV news cameras outside the Vancouver Law Courts on Thursday.
Pasquale Angelino Zampieri has filed an application seeking the return of a $16,500 ring he gave his fiancée Jessica Bennett.
The pair appeared in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, with Zampieri, 46, sitting on one side of the courtroom with his lawyer and Bennett, 37, sitting on the other side, without a lawyer.
The two eyed e§ach other and mouthed some words as they waited for the hearing to begin.
Before the hearing could begin, a break in the proceedings was called and they headed outside the downtown Vancouver courthouse. Zampeiri began speaking to reporters, with his lawyer at his side, but before long Bennett arrived. The two spent several minutes shouting at each other and pointed fingers, making a number of accusations against one another.
Zampieri and his lawyer, Ada Lam, then went inside the courthouse, leaving Bennett to address reporters.
Later Zampieri returned with Lam and spoke to reporters, as Bennett went inside the courthouse. “What we want today is to get the ring, either put into court for safekeeping or to have it returned to my client,” Lam said.
“Because under B.C. law, this ring should be returned to my client. The engagement didn’t go through and as a result of the contract not being fulfilled, the ring goes back to the person who bought it, which is my client.”
Added Lam: “When you promise to marry, you get this engagement ring. If the marriage doesn’t go through, you don’t get to keep the engagement ring. That’s really all there is to it.”
Lam said it doesn’t make a difference who decides the marriage isn’t going to go ahead.
“All the allegations about what happened, who broke up with who, doesn’t matter.”
Bennett is claiming that the ring was a gift and she is fighting to keep possession of it. At one point, she took the ring out of her purse and showed it to reporters.
The two met more than a year ago and were engaged shortly afterward. The ring in question was given to Bennett earlier this year. She broke off the engagement in August, prompting Zampieri to file his lawsuit..
