A New Zealand woman unsuccessfully tried to take her boyfriend of more than six years to court for breach of contract after he failed to give her a promised ride to the airport, according to newly released documents.
The New Zealand Disputes Tribunal, which oversees small claims disputes that don't require lawyers or judges, on Thursday released its March order dismissing the woman's claim.
According to the document, the woman, identified only as CL, said she was set to travel to attend a concert with friends and her boyfriend, HG, had agreed to take her to the airport then stay in her home to watch her two dogs. She claimed this constituted a "verbal contract."
On the morning of her flight, he failed to arrive at the appointed time, and she missed her flight. She told the tribunal she was seeking to recover the costs associated with changing her flight to the next day, a shuttle to the airport, and putting her dogs in a kennel.
CL told the tribunal that she and her boyfriend previously lived together, but now lived separately because his son had moved back in with him. She also said that HG "enjoyed" staying at her house and had watched her dogs in the past.
HG, meanwhile, refused to attend the hearing.
Tribunal referee Krysia Cowie dismissed the claim, finding that the man's "promise" to give CL a ride to the airport and dogsit did not constitute a contract, because there was no intention to create a "legally binding relationship."
"Partners, friends and colleagues make social arrangements, but it is unlikely they can be legally enforced unless the parties perform some act that demonstrates an intention that they will be bound by their promises," she wrote in the order.
"When friends fail to keep their promises, the other person may suffer a financial consequence but it may be that they cannot be compensated for that loss," she wrote. Such promises, instead, form the "normal give and take in an intimate relationship."
"It forms part of the everyday family and domestic relationship agreements that are not enforceable in the Disputes Tribunal," Cowie wrote.
-With reporting from TMX.
