last day of the previous plan-bookkeeping year, December 31, 1980) amounted to $23.3 million.
But the parties disagreed whether interest accrued during 1981, the year in which Schlitz withdrew. The Plan claimed that, for purposes of calculating the installment schedule, interest started accruing on the last day of the plan year preceding withdrawal (December 31, 1980). Schlitz, on the other hand, argued that accrual began on the first day of the plan year following withdrawal (January 1, 1982). Under either reading, the number of annual payments is eight. But, under the Plan's reading, the final payment would amount to $3,499,361, whereas, in Schlitz's reading, that payment would amount to $880,331.
The arbitrator in this case agreed with Schlitz's reading. See 9 EBC 2385, 2405 (1988). The District Court, reviewing thea business to make the first payment (a down payment) at the time of the closing? By way of contrast, when a loan is involved (say, when one borrows money on a home mortgage and repays it in installments), interest accrual normally does begin before the first payment. That is because the borrower has had the use of the money for one cycle before the first payment. In the case of a loan, it would seem pointless, and would simply generate an unnecessary back-andforth transfer of money, for a first repayment to take place on the very day the lender disburses the loan proceeds.
The "first payment" at issue here, however, looks more like a tax or purchase-money installment than a loan installment. Under the statute, the withdrawing employer's