Former Waipā posties Danny and Ian Kennedy are taking a claim for damages against New Zealand Post to the High Court.
The couple sold their Te Awamutu home and moved to the South Island in June after NZ Post cancelled their contract to deliver “all mail” in the RD3 Tamahere district in November 2023.
The cancellation followed the Kennedys’ complaint to NZ Post that some mail was being delivered by other contractors.
Although the couple failed to get a High Court injunction preventing the cancellation of the contract in November, Justice Ian Gault said there were questions around the termination notice and the Kennedys’ claims they had been promised an exclusive territory. These were best addressed by damages claim, he said.
“We are seeking substantial financial damages against NZ Post for unlawful termination of our contract, and failure to provide us with ‘exclusivity’ within the RD3 territory we purchased,” Danny Kennedy said.
“We believe NZ Post deliberately withheld its plans, for what it later in 2022 called its Multi Run Courier Business model and its more recent One Network model, the nationwide Courierisation of mail and parcels into a single van, before we interviewed with its senior Waikato executives in December 2018 and February 2019.”
After conducting due diligence and fully reliant upon the contractual and verbal assurances from its senior executives, the couple mortgaged their house and purchased the RD3 run in April 2019.
They have sought extensive ‘discovery’ through the court and provided what they say is evidence of removal and re-allocation of their freight to third party couriers.
Danny and Ian Kennedy contested New Zealand Post’s new delivery plan.
Chris Bishop
Last week the couple heard their request for a ministerial inquiry had passed from State Owned Enterprises minister Paul Goldsmith to Chris Bishop and onto Simeon Brown before it was dismissed in favour of a NZ Post board review.
Taranaki-King Country National MP Barbara Kuriger told The News the case needed to be looked at.
The News approached NZ Post for comment.
Senior external communications advisor Sarah Jarvis said: “NZ Post politely declines to comment on this matter, especially given it’s before the court.”
