"Property not found on type" when using interface default methods in JSP EL

Consider the following interface:

public interface I {
    default String getProperty() {
        return "...";
    }
}

and the implementing class which just re-uses the default implementation:

public final class C implements I {
    // empty
}

Whenever an instance of C is used in JSP EL scripting context:

<jsp:useBean id = "c" class = "com.example.C" scope = "request"/>
${c.property}

-- I receive a PropertyNotFoundException:

javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Property 'property' not found on type com.example.C
    javax.el.BeanELResolver$BeanProperties.get(BeanELResolver.java:268)
    javax.el.BeanELResolver$BeanProperties.access$300(BeanELResolver.java:221)
    javax.el.BeanELResolver.property(BeanELResolver.java:355)
    javax.el.BeanELResolver.getValue(BeanELResolver.java:95)
    org.apache.jasper.el.JasperELResolver.getValue(JasperELResolver.java:110)
    org.apache.el.parser.AstValue.getValue(AstValue.java:169)
    org.apache.el.ValueExpressionImpl.getValue(ValueExpressionImpl.java:184)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.proprietaryEvaluate(PageContextImpl.java:943)
    org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspService(index_jsp.java:225)
    org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:438)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:396)
    org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:340)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
    org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)

My initial idea Tomcat 6.0 was too old for Java 1.8 features, but I was surprised to see Tomcat 8.0 is also affected. Of course I can work the issue around by calling the default implementation explicitly:

    @Override
    public String getProperty() {
        return I.super.getProperty();
    }

-- but why on earth a default method could be a problem for Tomcat?

Update: further testing reveals default properties can't be found, while default methods can, so another workaround (Tomcat 7+) is:

<jsp:useBean id = "c" class = "com.example.C" scope = "request"/>
<%-- ${c.property} --%>
${c.getProperty()}