After defendant was terminated in the wake of a scandal involving his work-unit, he sued his employer for damages, alleging that his employer had made defamatory statements blaming him for the problem.

Defendant's retainer agreement with plaintiff put a one-million dollar cap on plaintiff's hourly fees, and also allowed for a 10% "Success Fee" on eligible amounts recovered between one-million and ten-million dollars, subject to the following limitation: "The Success Fee will be computed only on amounts in excess of current vested entitlements, or entitlements to be vested by January 2006."

Defendant and his employer eventually settled, and defendant received, among other things, a five-million dollar cash payment. The First Department determined that plaintiff is entitled to a success fee based on that payment, in Kaplan v. Jones, which was decided on July 19, 2007.

Characterizing the success fee-language as unambiguous, the court categorically rejected defendant's argument that the word "entitlements" refers to any compensation defendant would have received had his employment not been terminated, and that, since he would have been compensated more than five-million dollars had he not been fired, no success fee was owing.