Opinion ID: 783159
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The TREAD Act

Text: 63 The TREAD Act does not speak in terms of types of TPMSs; it does not state whether the agency's rule must adopt standards that require automakers to install direct, hybrid, or indirect systems. It says only that the Secretary of Transportation shall complete a rulemaking for a regulation to require a warning system in new motor vehicles to indicate to the operator when a tire is significantly under-inflated. TREAD Act § 13 (emphasis added). 64 The petitioners argue that the rule's one-tire, 30 percent standard fails to satisfy this minimum statutory requirement by permitting automakers to install currently available indirect systems, even though such systems do not warn drivers when two tires on the same side or the same axle of the vehicle are significantly under-inflated, or when all four tires are significantly under-inflated. The agency responds that the plain language of the TREAD Act requires only that TPMSs must warn drivers when a tire is significantly under-inflated; it does not expressly state that TPMSs must also warn drivers when two, three, or four tires are significantly under-inflated. The agency therefore suggests that the TREAD Act requires no more than a one-tire TPMS standard. 65 We think that, in light of the language and purpose of the TREAD Act, the petitioners' construction is clearly right and the agency's construction is clearly wrong. Section 13 requires warning systems that indicate when a tire is significantly under inflated. TREAD Act § 13 (emphasis added). The TREAD Act's  a tire plainly means one tire, two tires, three tires, or all four tires, under the elementary rule of statutory construction that the singular (a tire) includes the plural (tires). See 1 U.S.C. § 1 (In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise ... words importing the singular include and apply to several persons, parties, or things.); see also William N. Eskridge, Jr. & Philip P. Frickey, Cases and Materials on Legislation 642-43 (2d ed.1995) (discussing the singular-plural rule). Obviously, if a vehicle has two tires that are significantly under-inflated, then it has a tire that is significantly under-inflated — indeed, it has two instances of a tire that is significantly under-inflated. 25 66 The purpose of the statute, moreover, is to prevent motor vehicle crashes caused by significantly under-inflated tires. It is contrary to that purpose to read the phrase, when a tire is significantly under-inflated, to mean when one tire, and only one tire, is significantly under-inflated, thereby excluding approximately half of the instances in which tires are significantly under-inflated, Safety Standard, 49 C.F.R. § 571.138 pt. S4.5.2; see also Final Rule, 67 Fed. Reg. at 38718, 38728, and raising the risk that blowouts, flat tires, skidding, loss of control, and increased stopping distances will cause accidental injuries or deaths, Final Rule, 67 Fed. Reg. at 38739. 26 67 The judiciary is the final authority on issues of statutory construction and must reject administrative constructions which are contrary to clear congressional intent. Chevron, 467 U.S. at 843 n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 2778. We conclude that the agency's reading of section 13 of the TREAD Act — which permits the agency to adopt a one-tire TPMS standard — is contrary to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. Chevron, 467 U.S. at 843, 104 S.Ct. 2778. 27