The taxpayer sold his shares in a corporation for $300,000 but was only paid $25,000. In subsequent debt restructuring proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, he personally paid $3000 to his bankruptcy trustee's counsel, who was charged with recovering the $275,000 in unpaid amounts for the shares.
Lamarre J. found that the $3000 payment was a capital outlay rather than a business expense. The payment had been made in order to recover proceeds of disposition of the shares, and those proceeds would have given rise to a capital gain.
The taxpayer's argued that he had a business purpose in incurring his expenses, given that his goal was to avoid bankruptcy and thereby keep his professional title (as a certified general accountant) and thereby preserve his source of income. In light of the above analysis, this argument was irrelevant to the conclusion that the payment was capital in nature.