Disgruntled limousine customer sued company over "hurt feelings"

Mar 15 2023, 6:32 pm

A customer who hired a limousine company for roundtrip service took it to court over “hurt feelings,” “injury to dignity,” and for allegedly not showing up.

The woman in this small claims case, Ritu Mahil, hails from BC and brought the case against Northstar Limousine Ltd., which is based in Surrey.

Mahil claims that the limousine did not show up for the return trip and that she and her friends and family were forced to take taxis home at the end of the night.

She represented herself, while an employee or principal represented Northstar.

For the inconvenience, Mahil claimed $390 for the unused limousine return trip and $200 for “injury to dignity and hurt feelings,” for a total of $590.

In retort, Northstar suggests that the limo driver waited over an hour for Mahil’s party at the agreed location and time, but she never showed up.

Northstar says, “a member of Mrs. Mahil’s party texted the driver two hours after he arrived for the return trip saying they could not find the limousine and had taken a taxi home. Northstar says it fulfilled its obligations to Mrs. Mahil and owes her nothing.”

Some of the agreed facts in the case include that Mahil hired Northstar for the roundtrip service in June of 2022. They also agreed on pickup and drop-off times.

The pickup time was determined to be 10:30 pm, and Mahil claims her party made it to the pickup spot on time.

However, Northstar had GPS coordinates as evidence that Mahil and her party were not even a little bit on time.

GPS coordinates show that Northstar was at the pickup spot seven minutes early. The coordinates also show Northstar waited an hour and nine minutes at the pickup spot.

The court doc states, “At 11:32 pm, the driver messaged the alternate number saying the limousine had been waiting an hour. The 12:32 am response to that message says ‘they ended up cabbing home couldn’t find you’ and the driver replied, ‘I was the only limo there!’ He also confirmed his location was the same as it was for drop-off.”

“On balance, I prefer Northstar’s undisputed GPS tracking information and text message evidence to Mrs. Mahil’s unsupported account of events,” the tribunal member stated.

In the end, the tribunal found that Mahil, not Northstar, breached the agreement and dismissed Mahil’s claims.

Amir AliAmir Ali

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