Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/584

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DEWSNUP v. TIMM Scalia, J., dissenting

in § 506(d) just as it means that in § 506(a), see 11 U. S. C. § 506(a) (“An allowed claim of a creditor secured by a lien . . . is a secured claim to the extent . . .”) (emphasis added), and just as it means that elsewhere in the Bankruptcy Code, see, e. g., § 362(a)(5) (“to the extent that such lien secures a claim”); § 363(k) (“lien that secures an allowed claim”). An unnatural meaning should be disfavored at any time, but particularly when it produces a redundancy. See Montclair v. Ramsdell, 107 U. S. 147, 152 (1883). Of course respondents’ interpretation also creates a redundancy in § 506(d). If a “secured claim” means only a claim for which a lien has been given as security (whether or not the security is adequate), then the prologue of § 506(d) can be reformulated as follows: “To the extent that a lien secures a claim against the debtor that is not an allowed claim secured by a lien, such lien is void. . . .” Quite obviously, the phrase “secured by a lien” in that reformulation is utterly redundant and absurd—as is (on respondents’ interpretation) the word “secured,” which bears the same meaning. In other words, both the United States’ interpretation and respondents’ interpretation create a redundancy: the former by making both parts of the § 506(d) prologue refer to adequate security, and the latter by making both parts refer to security plain-and-simple. Only when one gives the words in the first part of the prologue (“[t]o the extent that a lien secures a claim”) their natural meaning (as the Government does not) and gives the words in the second part of the prologue (“allowed secured claim”) their previously established statutory meaning (as the respondents do not) does the provision make a point instead of a redundancy. Moreover, the practical consequences of the United States’ interpretation would be absurd. A secured creditor holding a lien on property that is completely worthless would not face lien avoidance under § 506(d), even if the claim secured by that lien were disallowed entirely. The same would be true of a lien on property that has some value but is obvi-