Cite as: 519 U. S. 248 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
deemed to be the proper party on behalf of the Secretary of Labor in all review proceedings conducted pursuant to section 21(c) of the LHWCA"). Nor need we infer the Director's right to appear as a respondent in order for § 21a to have meaning. Although Newport News curtailed the Secretary's right to appear as a petitioner before the courts of appeals in most circumstances, that decision did not foreclose an appearance as a petitioner in all situations. See, e. g., Newport News, supra, at 128, n. 3 (leaving open the possibility that the Director may be a "person adversely affected or aggrieved" when appealing a Board ruling adverse to the § 944 fund).
Left with no guidance from the Act itself, we turn to the general rule that governs all appeals from administrative agencies to the courts of appeals, Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 15(a). That Rule, in pertinent part, states:
"Review of an order of an administrative agency, board, commission, or officer (hereinafter, the term 'agency' will include agency, board, commission, or officer) must be obtained by filing with the clerk of a court of appeals . . . [the appropriate form indicated by law]. . . . In each case the agency must be named respondent." (Emphasis added.)
We believe that it is this Rule that confers upon the Director the right to appear as a respondent before the courts of appeals. Rule 15(a) clearly applies to appeals from the Benefits Review Board: The LHWCA authorizes appellate review of the "final order of the [Benefits Review] Board," 33 U. S. C. § 921(c), and Rule 15(a) applies to "[r]eview of an order of an administrative agency [or] board." We decline to read Rule 15(a) more narrowly, as the Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the District of Columbia have done. Those courts have held that Rule 15(a) applies only where "a single private party is contesting the action of an agency, which agency must appear and defend on the merits
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