A woman in New Zealand has tried to sue her own long-term boyfriend after he failed to take her to the airport, meaning that she missed her flight and had to buy a new ticket in order to arrive at her destination in time to attend a concert.
The unnamed woman took her boyfriend of six and a half years to a disputes tribunal where she alleged breach of contract because, she claimed, her boyfriend had verbally agreed to pick her up and take her to the airport.
The tribunal heard that the woman’s boyfriend had agreed not only to take her to the airport but also to stay at her house while she was away to look after her two dogs.
The day before her flight, the woman confirmed by text message what time she needed to be picked up, but her boyfriend failed to turn up at the time she was expecting him, and she ended up missing her flight.
The woman ended up buying a new plane ticket in order to get to the concert in time. She wanted the tribunal to rule that her boyfriend must pay for the new plane ticket, as well as the cost of putting her dogs in kennels for the duration of her trip.
On top of those expenses, the woman also said that she had bought a ferry ticket for her boyfriend but when the relationship broke down, she wanted to be reimbursed for this cost.
Only the woman’s evidence was heard by the tribunal after her boyfriend refused to attend the hearing, although that didn’t stop the judge from ruling in favour of the boyfriend.
In her judgment, the referee ruled that the agreement reached between the woman and her boyfriend was nothing more than the promises exchanged in “a normal give-and-take intimate relationship”.
As a result, the promises are not legally enforceable and the woman’s claims were dismissed.
“Although a promise was made, it falls short of being a contract,” referee Krysia Cowie wrote in her judgment. “It forms part of the everyday family and domestic relationship agreements that are not enforceable”.
