Leaseholder of Whitehorse's 'purple cabin' back in court, appealing order to vacate

The fate of a building in downtown Whitehorse known as the "purple cabin" is, once again, before the court. 

Lawyer Vincent Larochelle, who's representing the cabin's owner Len Tarka and tenant Eric DeLong, said during an appeal court hearing Wednesday that the terms of a decades-old contract were as ambiguous at the time of signing as they are now — a claim the territory's counsel hotly contests. 

In 2021, the Yukon government sued Tarka and DeLong after they refused to vacate the property. Tarka had been renting the property from the government for $100 per year for a term of "30 years, or the life of the Lessee" since Oct. 1, 1991. The government said Tarka's lease had expired, but Tarka's interpretation of the agreement was that the property was his to rent for life.

In a decision last year, Supreme Court Justice Karen Wenckebach sided with the government, and ordered Tarka and DeLong to vacate by December 2024. 

Tarka and DeLong asked the court to throw out that decision. The appeal court granted a temporary stay of that vacancy order until a final decision on the appeal is made.

During Wednesday's appeal hearing, Larochelle argued that Wenckebach ignored context, relying only on what's written into the 1991 contract. Compounding things, Larochelle said, is that Tarka was offered a life estate lease in early discussions with the government in the 1980s, and that's why Tarka was under the impression that the lease agreement was life-long.

He says the government "created ambiguity."

"What else could it possibly mean by 'life,'" Larochelle said. "Don't say life estate if you don't mean life."

Larochelle argues that if the lease was only 30 years, Tarka may not have invested roughly $3,000 in improving the property before the 1991 contract was signed. Among other things, Larochelle said Tarka paid for land surveys.

The Yukon government's lawyer Kimberly Sova disagreed with the appellants in her submissions on Wednesday.

Sova said it was unlikely that Tarka was offered a life estate lease, because the territory's lands legislation caps leases at 30 years with room to extend. If the overseeing minister diverted from the rules, there would have been some acknowledgement of that, Sova said.

Sova also argued that communication prior to the lease agreement should not be legally binding. 

Sova suggested that Tarka did not have any legal right to the property before signing that lease, since he was applying under the territory's squatter policy. She also said the early correspondence concerning a life estate lease were suggestions, not promises. She said policies change all the time after the government has taken feedback from residents.

Three judges from B.C. heard the appeal. They reserved their decision.