The court finds her guilty of breach of trust and only grants her Dh100,000.
Dubai: After her sister refused to return the items, which she claimed were worth approximately Dh1 million, a Dubai lady who trusted her sister with a sizable amount of gold jewelry out of concern that her ex-husband may seize it won a breach-of-trust case. A family precaution turned into a complicated legal dispute that made it all the way to the Court of Cassation. The sister who received the gold was found guilty of breach of trust by the emirate’s highest court, which maintained her conviction.
However, the court only granted Dh100,000 in compensation in the civil suit since the claimant was unable to demonstrate the true worth and amount of the jewelry that was purportedly stolen. According to court documents, the conflict began in 2017 when the claimant gave her sister a sizable quantity of gold jewelry to keep safe during a fight with her ex-husband, according to Emarat Al Youm. Rings, necklaces, whole gold sets in yellow and white, children’s jewelry, and other bracelets were among the items. At the time, she put their worth at about Dh300,000. The woman filed a breach-of-trust complaint in 2023 after her sister refused to return the gold years later. The defendant was found guilty by the criminal court, which fined her Dh10,000 and mandated that she reimburse Dh300,000, the purported value of the jewelry. The appropriate court was consulted regarding the civil portion of the matter. The Court of Cassation reversed the decision and remanded the case to a different appellate panel after the defendant appealed and momentarily obtained an acquittal. A further conviction and an additional Dh10,000 fine for breach of trust resulted from the second appeal. However, because the claimant’s appraisal was unsupported, the court rejected to order the return of the gold’s value.
Later, the claimant filed a civil lawsuit, claiming a total weight of more than 2.25 kilograms, Dh500,000 in damages, and Dh931,712, which she said is the current worth of the gold. In her counterclaim, the defendant offered to deposit a number of gold objects that she claimed belonged to her sister in court. Only two of the objects were acknowledged as belonging to the claimant, who rejected the remaining ones. Because the items supplied did not match the type or quantity specified in the initial action, the civil court dismissed the counterclaim. It emphasized that the claimant bears the burden of proof since she did not present invoices, appraisals, or thorough descriptions to support the weight or value she claimed.
Nevertheless, the court stated that the criminal conviction had full evidential weight with regard to the defendant’s responsibility and the incidence of the offense. It determined that the claimant had experienced both emotional distress due to the violation of trust between two sisters and pecuniary loss as a result of being deprived of her jewelry or its value. The court ordered the defendant to pay Dh100,000 in material and moral damages, plus legal interest, after weighing the shown injury against the dearth of trustworthy information regarding valuation.
