The taxpayer, a mining company, bought over $9 million of shares in, and made over $8 million in loans to, an exploration company ("Windarra"). The loan subsequently was settled for a payment by the exploration company of $1 million, with the taxpayer claiming the $7 million loss as an income loss. The Court accepted the trial judge's finding that the taxpayer was not ordinarily in the business of lending money, that the loans made were incidental to the taxpayer's gold-mining business, and therefore that taxpayer had not rebutted the presumption that shareholder loans are made to secure an enduring benefit, so that the loss was on capital account. Dawson J.A. stated (at para. 32):
I accept the respondent's submission that the monies advanced pursuant to the Windarra Loan could be characterized as "sums expended on the structure within which profits were to be earned," one of the expressions descriptive of a capital transaction cited with approval by the Supreme Court in Johns-Manville [85 DTC 5373, [1985] 2 S.C.R. 46].