Owners of Iqaluit restaurant that was forced to close lose final appeal

The Nunavut appeals court has dismissed an appeal from the owners of a restaurant in Iqaluit that was forced to close last year.

It's the end of a long fight by sisters Kim and Donna Waters, who owned the Waters' Edge Seafood and Steakhouse and Kickin' Caribou Pub.

The restaurant and bar closed in August, after the women lost the right to stay in the Hotel Arctic building.

At the time, the hotel was owned by Northview Apartment Reit but had been sold to Qikiqtaaluk Corp.

The Waters argued they had a verbal lease agreement with Northview to stay until 2023.

However, a judge ruled in July that the lease would end on Aug. 31, 2017.

The sisters appealed that decision. Their lawyer previously told CBC they were seeking damages that could run "well into the millions."

The Nunavut Court of Appeals heard their case in February. In a decision dated March 2, the justices dismissed the appeal.

During the trial, the sisters had claimed that they invested approximately $100,000 into the restaurant believing that the lease would be extended. However, the trial judge dismissed that claim, saying he found no evidence to support it.

"If the trial judge used the wrong legal test, this would be an error of law but we are not persuaded of any such error," the appeal court justices wrote in their decision.

The trial judge had also found that there was no written and signed amendment to the lease. Despite testimony from Kim Waters that there had been a handshake and coin flip to "seal the deal," the trial judge rejected her version of events.

"The trial judge did not misapprehend, ignore or misconceive the evidence. There is no reviewable error in the trial judge's conclusion that there was no signed amendment," the decision said.

The new owner, Qikiqtaaluk Properties Inc., turned the building into classrooms and a residence for Nunavut Arctic College's law program.