A SINGAPOREAN man had filed two lawsuits against his closest female friend for rejecting his romantic advances, causing him emotional trauma due to seeing him as a friend only.
The man known as Kawshigan had met Nora Tan in 2016 and stayed friends ever since, but their friendship was challenged in 2020 as both parties had misaligned perceptions of one another, according to The Straits Times’ report.
In September 2020, their views on their friendship were not on the same page, with Nora only viewing Kawshigan as a normal friend but he saw Nora as his closest friend.
Nora wanted to cut down their interactions which upset Kawshigan as he felt that it meant pushing their relationship, but she highlighted her need for boundaries and told him to be ‘self-reliant’.
He then issued a letter of demand to Nora on Oct 22, 2020, in retaliation, threatening legal action for “monetary damages arising from negligent infliction of emotional distress and possible defamation”.
Nora then tried to reason with him, explaining through text message that her “discomfort (was) genuine” and he replied in a threatening manner to have her either go with his demands to further their relationship or suffer “irrevocable” damage to her private and working life.
In an attempt to diminish his pursuits, Nora then agreed to participate in Kawshigan’s counselling sessions, as recommended by his counselor but stopped going after one and a half years as she felt they were a lost cause.
Nora filed a harassment claim against Kawshigan in April 2022 and he implied in a text message that he would file a potential claim, hinting with terms like “damage that has strong legal basis” and “make your liability worst”.
She then decided to cut him out of her life on May 14, after many talks of bettering their relationship, due to his inability to respect her personal boundaries and failure to deal with his constant need to interact with her.
Once she cut him out of her life, he then proceeded to drop a High Court and magistrate’s court lawsuit against her on July 7 and Aug 27, respectively.
The High Court suit had amounted to S$3 million due to Nora’s alleged remarks and negligence causing him to suffer losses in “earning capacity” and costs incurred for therapy programmes to overcome his “trauma”.
The magistrate’s court claim of S$22,000 was filed by Kawshigan due to Nora allegedly violating an agreement to improve their relationship.
State Courts deputy registrar Lewis Tan had struck the latter suit in January, stating Kawshigan’s claim as “manifestly groundless and without foundation”, pointing out the suit being abusive to the court process.
“This court will not be an accessory to his calculated attempt to compel engagement from the defendant who, after years of massaging the claimant’s unhappiness, has finally decided to stand up to his threats rather than cower and give in to his demands,” Lewis said in his judgment.
Nora also applied to strike out his claim.