The taxpayer owned 50% of the shares of a corporation ("DPX") which made heavily leveraged investments. The taxpayer's wife expected to receive $2.1M cash following their separation. Because of the risky nature of DPX's portfolio, borrowing this sum was infeasible. The taxpayer instead incurred legal fees in order to delay the process for reaching a final settlement (which took three and a half years).
Graham J accepted that "the predominant purpose for which Mr. Kondor incurred the legal fees was to protect the value of his shares in DPX" (para. 11). Therefore, the fees were incurred for the purpose of producing income from property.
Nevertheless, Graham J disallowed the taxpayer's deduction of the legal fees because they were incurred to preserve a capital asset, and were therefore on capital account.