The owners of the Garibaldi Village mall are suing the former operators of the Garibaldi 5 Cinema for more than $700,000 in back rent on the movie theatre space.

In a notice of civil claim filed Aug. 14 in B.C. Supreme Court, Garibaldi Village Property Holdings Ltd. and Garibaldi Village Limited Partnership claim the theatre operators had failed to pay $707,276.03 in rent-in-arrears under the lease agreement signed in 2006.

On July 27, the landlord's lawyers sent a notice of default to the tenants, according to the writ, and on Aug. 3, the landlord sent a notice of termination, “advising that the tenant was in breach of the terms of the lease for failure to pay the rent and other amounts owning under the lease,” the notice states.

Under terms of the lease, the landlord chose to terminate the lease on Aug. 9, the writ states.

Listed as defendants in the claims are Resort Cinemas of Whistler, Marshall C. Smith, Rocky Mountain Resort Cinemas Inc., Resources Financial Corp. Metro Canada Corp. and Metropolitan Theatres Corp.

According to the notice, under terms of the lease the monthly rent on the 12,000-square-foot theatre space was $11,019.12 starting Oct. 1, 2006, and increased to $20,614 per month on Oct. 1, 2011. It would have reached $24,262 per month on Oct. 1, 2013, if the lease had not been terminated, the notice states.

No statement of defence has been filed. Statements and notices of civil claim contain allegations that have not yet been proven in court.