Hugo Black

“ For the Bankruptcy Act has as yet authorized no investigation of how a worker spends his money to determine if he is entitled to a priority for it. And in all events insurance payments would not seem to be the type of expenditure which Congress would discourage.
It is also hard for me to imagine how the fact that the moneys are paid to parties other than the workmen is in any way connected with the question of whether the payments are wages, whatever its relevance might be to whether the sums are 'due to workmen.' This is especially true in the light of Shropshire, Woodliff & Co. ”

“ At worst it would give priorities to assignees of the workmen, usually creditors, while denying them to insurance funds for their benefit. Unless we are prepared to repudiate what we said in the Carter and Shropshire cases, I think § 64, sub. a (2) of the Bankruptcy Act means that the sums which Embassy contracted to pay to these employees for their labor by making payments to welfare funds are wages due to workers. If the provision granting priority to wages is to be narrowed, It should be done by Congress-not by this Court. ”

“ I believe payments made by employers to union welfare funds are 'wages * * * due to workmen * * *,' under the Bankruptcy Act's priority section. [1] The history of the section is one of continuous congressional expansion. Priority for the 'full amount of the wages due' on account of 'any labor as an operative in the service of any bankrupt' was first granted in the 1841 Bankruptcy Act ”