The appellant demolition company had a contractual obligation to pay the respondent construction company for a demolitions project (in exchange for the right to salvage the wreckage), but the obligation only triggered when the respondent gave the appellant possession of the building to be demolished. The Court found that this obligation did not constitute a debt until possession was transferred, because until that time the respondent could not "have maintained an effective action against the appellants" for the amount in question (p. 268).
Masten J.A. quoted with approval (at p. 269), the statement of Moss J.A. in Mail Ptg. Co. v. Clarkson (1898), 25 A.R. (Ont.) 1, at 9:
A debt is defined to be a sum of money which is certainly, and at all events, payable without regard to the fact whether it be payable now or at a future time. And an accruing debt is a debt not yet actually payable, but a debt which is represented by an existing obligation.