Ever since then–New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick approved an $8.5 billion settlement between Bank of America and mortgage-backed securities investors last month, interested parties have debated what should happen next. BofA and an investor group backing the deal asked Kapnick’s successor, Saliann Scarpulla, to issue a final judgment that they prevailed over other investors who challenged the adequacy of the settlement. The most high-profile objector, American International Group Inc., urged Scarpulla to keep the case open, arguing that Kapnick left issues unresolved in the Jan. 31 ruling—her last before joining New York’s intermediate appeals court.
Scarpulla brought that debate to a quick end on Wednesday, stating from the bench that she’ll soon declare the case closed, as BofA requested. “The settlement agreement says what it says,” Scarpulla said at the hearing, according to our affiliate New York Commercial Litigation Insider. “If you’re unhappy with it and you’re unhappy with Justice Kapnick’s ruling, your remedy is to go to the Appellate Division and seek a stay, not to come to me and seek a stay of the supplemental proceedings.”
