Lines v. Frederick

Summary

The Court held that accrued but unpaid vacation pay of wage-earning bankrupts is not property that passes to the bankruptcy trustee under the Bankruptcy Act. Although the statute broadly reaches valuable interests rooted in the prebankruptcy past, vacation pay serves the debtor's basic economic needs and is closely connected to the fresh-start policy of bankruptcy. Justice Harlan, dissenting, would have set the case for full argument because the record and relevant state law were uncertain and the issue was close.