Evans v. Minister of National Revenue, 60 DTC 1047, [1960] CTC 69, [1960] S.C.R. 391 -- summary under Legal and other Professional Fees

The taxpayer incurred legal fees in successfully establishing that for the remainder of her lifetime she was entitled to a 1/3 share of the income from the residue of the estate of her father-in-law. She was not entitled to any part of the capital of the estate. Her legal fees were characterized as "expenses of collecting income to which she was entitled but the payment of which she could not otherwise obtain" (p. 1050), and, accordingly, were deductible. Whereas in the Dominion Natural Gas case, the expenses were incurred in litigation a subject matter of which was an item of fixed capital (a valuable, exclusive perpetual franchise), here the right to receive income was not a capital asset. Cartwright J. also noted (at p. 1050) that the Dominion Natural Gas case had extended the test in British Insulated to include the preserving of an asset or advantage for the enduring benefit of the trade.