Milwaukee Brewery Workers' Pension Plan v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., 513 U.S. 414, 11 (1995)

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424

MILWAUKEE BREWERY WORKERS' PENSION PLAN v. JOS. SCHLITZ BREWING CO.

Opinion of the Court

We read this provision to permit an employer, by paying a lump sum, to avoid paying the amortization interest that § 1399(c)(1)(A)(i) would otherwise cause to accrue. (Under any other reading, the prepayment provision would not create much of an "entitle[ment]." Moreover, the prepayment provision refers to "payments determined under [§ 1399(c)(1) (C)]"—not § 1399(c)(1)(A), the provision that causes amortization interest to accrue.) It would seem odd if the prepayment provision enabled an employer to avoid all interest except the interest accruing during the year of withdrawal. And, if interest accrued from the last day of the year before withdrawal, there would hardly ever be a time that no interest was due. Such a reading would thus make it very diffi-cult to give meaning to the words "if any" in the phrase "plus accrued interest, if any." (The Third Circuit suggested that these words might refer to a lump-sum payment made immediately after a scheduled installment. See Huber, 916 F. 2d, at 99. We agree that they could, theoretically. But, realistically speaking, it seems unlikely that Congress inserted "if any" to deal with such an unusual event.)

Further, the interpretation under which interest would accrue from the last day of the year before withdrawal is diffi-cult to reconcile with the statutory language that defines a withdrawing employer's basic liability. Section 1381(a) says that the withdrawing employer becomes "liable to the plan in the amount determined under this part to be the withdrawal liability." Section 1381(b)(1) defines "withdrawal liability" as "the amount determined under section 1391." Yet, § 1391 says nothing about a year's worth of interest. Why then read the provision here at issue so that it inevitably and always creates liability in the amount of the withdrawal charge plus one year's interest, irrespective of when the employer, in fact, withdraws and how or when the employee begins to pay?

Finally, the provision here at issue asks one to calculate the installment payments as if the "first payment" was made,

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