ROME – A woman has been ordered to return a luxury apartment in Sanremo gifted to her by a former partner on the ground of 'ingratitude' after publicly flaunting her new relationship, the Supreme Court has ruled. 

 The apartment was set to become the residence of the anonymous protagonists, had Pietro* not discovered that Federica* had been unfaithful to him for quite some time. 

 The establishment of the return of the apartment by the Supreme Court will set a major precedent.  The verdict has finally put an end to a series of trials dragged out for many years, according to Secolo d'Italia. 

 The sentence was not solely based on the woman’s infidelity but also her alleged ‘ingratitude’ toward her ex-partner. 

 This was combined with the fact that she had not been able to nurse even 'a singular feeling of gratitude’ following the reciept of the gift, the judges wrote.  The plaintiff, Pietro represented by Alessandro Moroni and Paolo Canepa, was a wealthy landlord, who had met the defendant Federica, represented by Alberto Figone, many years ago and the couple had first moved in together in 2008. 

 On March 17 of 2016 Pietro gifted Federica an apartment that he had previously owned, only to discover days later that she had been having an emotional affair with another man, according to Secolo d’Italia.

 Pietro was then asked to move out of the apartment, while the relationship between Federica and her new partner became public domain. The judges noted that the woman ‘was pictured in a national magazine with her new partner and had released statements in poor taste about how much more fulfilling her new relationship was.’

 The verdict sets a major precedent. The first trial at the Tribunal of Imperia sided with Federica but an appeal in the court of Genoa overturned the sentence in 2022.  A few days ago the Supreme Court confirmed the ruling that article 801 of the civil code, which states that ‘it is legitimate to recall a gift on account of the ingratitude of the recipient,’ had indeed been violated.

 The defendant had tried to maintain that the gift was a sort of fulfilment of a ‘moral duty’ but for the judges this was ‘a conscious relationship undertaken by an adult woman’ and ‘a duty of gratitude’ should be demonstrated by the partner.  

 The sentence goes beyond the idea of infidelity. The judges, in fact, deny that the ingratitude was found in the extra-marital relationship itself but rather the circumstances in which this affair was ‘flaunted’ ‘within the walls of the martial house, in the presence of many strangers’ and then made public ‘in an obviously disrespectful way towards the former partner’.  Federica will now have to return the apartment. 

*names have been anonymised

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