The Vice-Chancellor, Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson declined to reverse a finding of the Commissioners that four brothers who had no history of dealings in land had realized a gain on capital account from the disposition of raw land which they had acquired three months previously. With respect to a submission of the Crown that it was a critical factor that the land was not producing income, the Vice-Chancellor stated (p. 387):
"In 1986 it is not any longer self-evident that unless land is producing income it cannot be an investment. ... Since the arrival of inflation and high rates of tax on income new approaches to investment have emerged putting the emphasis in investment on the making of capital profit at the expense of income yield ... [T]he mere fact that land is not income-producing should not be decisive or even virtually decisive on the question whether it was bought as an investment."