The corona pandemic and its effects have had to be used for many excuses: in court, for example, there were defendants who repeatedly canceled trial dates because they claimed to have had several corona infections within four weeks. When terminating a gym contract, however, a non-sports person bit his teeth: the woman from Munich had simply stopped paying her membership fee due to corona regulations in a headlock – wrongly, as the Munich District Court has now decided. The woman now has to pay properly for this.
In April 2021, the woman signed the application for admission to a gym for physical training. On July 1, she wanted to train on the machines and work up a sweat for a year and a half. The studio wanted 74 euros a month for the use of the equipment. But the woman’s good intentions with the training apparently didn’t last very long.
Just one month after the start of training, the woman from Munich sent the gym an extraordinary termination. The studio didn’t want to accept this, resisted it, sent reminders and even called in a collection agency to collect the outstanding payments. However without any success. So the studio filed a lawsuit against the unwilling customer.
The court now found out who the woman blamed for her unwillingness to train: the corona pandemic and its regulations. Because according to the state regulations, the woman from Munich could only have trained with a valid vaccination status, or with the presentation of a current negative quick test. Under these aggravated circumstances, the woman believed, she had an extraordinary right of termination.
“It was reasonable to carry out such a test”
During the hearing before the district court, she explained that she was not able to be vaccinated against Corona for “personal and health reasons”. It is not known why she also refused a rapid test.
In the sports studio, on the other hand, the opinion was that the customer could very well have steeled her body under these conditions. The dismissal was therefore deemed invalid.
The district court upheld the complaint in its entirety. According to the press office of the court, the judge ruled that the woman’s dismissal was invalid. After all, she could have used the studio without vaccination. A simple coronavirus test would have been enough. “It was reasonable to carry out such a test,” the court found.
The fitness studio was open during the decisive period, and the woman could have used the studio if the corona protection regulations were observed. The court sentenced the defendant to pay the outstanding membership fees in the amount of 1184 euros.
Mens sana in corpore sano, the Latin would say. Loosely translated: A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. It is not known whether the judge actually visits a gym. What is certain, however, is that the woman accepted the judgment of the Munich district court, it is final (Az.: 161 C 2028/22).