Wilson v. Nomura Securities International, Inc. - dissent

When opposing lawyers execute a document to settle litigation, they should expect courts to apply that document according to its precise terms, leaving room for “interpretation” only to remedy the most obvious inadvertencies. In this case involving claims under both federal and municipal law, the lawyers settled their litigation for an amount that was stated to be “inclusive of costs.” It did not say, “inclusive of costs and attorney’s fees,” as most careful lawyers would have said if they wanted the settlement to preclude a claim for attorney’s fees. The Court acknowledges that the term…