A court in New Zealand was confronted with an unusual legal dispute. A woman sued her long-term ex-partner because he had not driven her to the airport as agreed.
A woman has sued her former partner because he did not drive her to the airport and she missed her flight as a result. As the BBC reports, the accusation was that an oral contract had been breached. The court in New Zealand, however, dismissed the case.
The woman, identified in the court document only by her initials CL, argued that she had asked her boyfriend HG, with whom she had been in a relationship for six and a half years at the time, to pick her up from home between 10am and 10.15am and take her to the airport. She also claimed that he had promised to look after her house and dogs while she was away, the BBC reported.
However, when HG did not keep this promise, it not only caused personal displeasure but also financial costs for the person concerned. She now had to pay for her dogs to be kept in a kennel and find an alternative way to get to the airport.
The court made it clear that for an agreement to be enforceable, there must be an intention to create a legally binding relationship between the parties. This intention was not present in the case of CL and HG. “Partners, friends and colleagues make social agreements, but it is unlikely that they are legally enforceable,” the judge explained in her ruling. “There must be an intention to create a legally binding relationship.”
It was determined that the promises exchanged were in line with the normal give and take in an intimate relationship and fell short of a contract. CL was unable to prove a claim and so her claim was dismissed.
You should also be careful when concluding oral contracts in Germany. However, as the “Deutsche Rechtsanwaltsauskunft” explains, oral agreements are in many cases binding under German law.
Dr. Jörn Zons, a specialist lawyer for contract law, explains: “In Germany, there is freedom of contract, which means that, with a few exceptions, you can basically conclude contracts however you want, for example verbally or with a handshake.”
This freedom implies that, apart from exceptions such as property purchase contracts or inheritance law issues, most oral agreements are also enforceable – with one condition, according to Zons: “In that case, however, it is important that witnesses can confirm the conclusion of the contract.”
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