Are gifts legally protected?
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Are gifts legally protected?
My estranged brother gave me a handful of baseball cards 10 years ago. Now he is threatening me with calling the authorities if I don’t give them back. He claims he never gifted them to me. Do I have any legal
protection?
Asked on November 8, 2017 under Criminal Law, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Legally, a gift, once given, cannot be ungiven; it forever more belongs to the recipient, and the giver has no right t get it back. The cards are your property, not his. In theory, if he could convince the authorities that he never gave them to you but rather that you stole them, he could look to press charges, but based on the facts you describe and how long ago this occured, that it is unlikely to happen (it is unlikely the police will feel that a 10-year-old transaction involving one brother giving baseball cards to another was theft).
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