Dorothy Sayers had a couple of quips about the law in Peter Whimsey. Saying "oh, absolutely" in a conversation with a lawyer about a will having consequence, and the exact legal meaning of words like "wholly" in the context of food and drink made wholly from pears. She'd worked in advertising and may well have come across the "slug in the bottle" case, or something similar. And of course wills are often at the heart of detective fiction.

The point about contracts and the meaning of words at the time as distinct from in the present lawsuit is one of those "yes.. but how do you KNOW" moments. It feels like a statement of intent which goes to he-said/she-said except perhaps there is some context outside of the contract docs which sets what was intended, but that runs counter to the overall impression "its what the contract said, and not extraneous words"