500
Blackmun, J., dissenting
ants to bet their statutory benefits on the possibility that future administrative and perhaps judicial proceedings, years later, might vindicate their position that the employer should have been paying benefits—particularly when the employer's asserted interest is already adequately protected independently of § 33(g)(1).
3
The Court recognizes the patent unfairness of this situation, and it as much as admits that its interpretation is out of line with the policies of the Act. See ante, at 483. Nevertheless, the Court holds that the plain meaning of the term "person entitled to compensation" clearly applies to both categories of claimants—those whose employers have denied liability, as well as those whose employers have acknowledged that they must pay statutory benefits. See ante, at 477. For that reason, the Court implies, regardless of what Congress may have thought it was accomplishing in the 1984 amendments, the words "person entitled to compensation" simply will not bear the construction O'Leary gave them. See ante, at 478-479.
Even setting aside my doubts, expressed above, about the plain meaning rule's application to this statute, I am not persuaded by the Court's contention. In my view, it does not strain ordinary language to describe claimants whose employers have acknowledged LHWCA liability as "persons entitled to compensation," but to withhold that description from claimants whose employers have denied liability for compensation. This is particularly so, given the context in which the term appears in the statute. Section 33(g)(1) requires the "person entitled to compensation" to compare two figures—the amount of a settlement offer, on the one hand, and the amount of compensation to which the person is entitled, on the other. But what is that latter figure in a situation in which the employer denies liability in full or in part? Doubtless, the claimant could hazard a guess by consulting the Act's jurisdictional provisions concerning who is covered
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