A Canadian man has lost a share of a $27m (€19m) lottery jackpot because his winning ticket was printed seven seconds too late.

The highest court in Canada dismissed Joel Ifergan’s appeal to secure the money, ending his seven-year legal battle with Loto-Quebec – which has run him legal bills estimated to cost $100,000 (€70,000).

Mr Ifergan bought two tickets at 8.59pm on May 23^rd, 2008, for Loto-Quebec’s now-defunct Lotto Super 7 Draw, one minute before the 9pm cut-off time. The first ticket printed in time for the May 23^rd draw, but the second and winning ticket was registered as after the deadline, making it eligible for the next week’s draw instead.

The second ticket had all seven of the 23^rd’s winning lottery numbers, but was rejected and deemed void by Loto-Quebec. The week’s jackpot was awarded to someone else.

Mr Ifergan has been battling in the courts to be awarded $13.5m (€9.4m) because he began the transaction before the time had elapsed. He blames the machine’s seven-second processing delay for denying him the millions.

In 2008, Mehernosh Iranpur, the cashier who handled the transaction, told a local newspaper that “The machine... is one of the older machines.”

A court summary reveals that Mr Iranpur told Mr Ifergan that he needed to hurry in order to make the 9pm deadline, and even asked him if he was certain he wanted to buy the second ticket since it had been printed after the deadline. Mr Ifergen reportedly said yes to this.