PROVIDENCE — You had your day in court. Now it’s time to end the litigation.

That was the upshot of a recent state Supreme Court decision that tells Alan G. and William B. Palazzo that they missed their chance to win damages from Senate Finance Chairman Stephen D. Alves, D-West Warwick.

The Palazzo brothers had filed a lawsuit that accused Alves of violating free-speech rights and sought $2 million in punitive damages. But the Supreme Court said that legal battle has already been “wrapped up” and the law does not allow the brothers to pursue a separate suit.

The dispute dates back to 2001 when Alves sued the brothers, claiming statements they made at public meetings and in letters to the editor were slanderous and libelous. In 2002, a judge ruled that Alves’ suit against Alan Palazzo was an illegal attempt to stifle a critic — known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP.

To satisfy the judgment, Alves agreed to pay Alan Palazzo $33,000, which would cover costs and interest, and the claims against William Palazzo were settled and dismissed, according to the Supreme Court decision.

In 2005, the Palazzos sued Alves, seeking compensatory and punitive damages. But Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg dismissed the Palazzos’ lawsuit, saying that the anti-SLAPP statute does not allow a lawsuit “subsequent to a determination that a claim, counterclaim or cross claim violated the statute” and that the Palazzos had not “specifically requested punitive and compensatory damages in the original action.”

In its April 3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld that ruling.

“Contrary to plaintiffs’ assertion, the anti-SLAPP statute cannot reasonably be read as providing a mechanism by which a party may file a separate ‘SLAPP-back’ lawsuit,” Justice William P. Robinson III said in writing for the court. Rather, he said, “The statute envisions a unitary proceeding — one in which all contentions of the parties would in the end be ‘wrapped up.’ ”

The people and the issues are identical in the original suit filed by Alves and the latest suit filed by the Palazzos, Robinson noted.

“The Palazzos’ claims for the statutorily authorized compensatory and punitive damages could have, and should have, been made in the original action,” he wrote. “Consequently, the Palazzos’ claims for same are precluded because they failed to do so at that time.”

The ruling culminates years of legal sparring between one of West Warwick’s dominant politicians and two of his most vocal and persistent critics. And the Supreme Court, which rejected an earlier appeal by Alves, made clear that it wants this litigation to stop.

“The fact that this action was filed in the Superior Court and was then, after it was dismissed by that court, appealed to this court is more than a little disturbing,” Robinson wrote.

The court questioned whether it was worth pursuing the lawsuit in the first place, given the “straightforward language” of the statute and “venerable principles of American jurisprudence” such as res judicata, a Latin term which refers to an issue that has been definitely settled by a judicial decision.

“It must be stated that we did give serious consideration to imposing sanctions even in the absence of a motion for same,” Robinson wrote. “In the end, however, we have decided not to do so” mainly because the court had never analyzed the statute “with respect to the issues discussed in this opinion,” the court said.

But now that the court has addressed those issues, Robinson warned, “we would be disinclined to abstain from imposing sanctions in a similar situation in the future, whether involving these parties or others.”

The court repeated an admonition it issued in a 2006 case: “We are more than persuaded that the instant plaintiffs have had their day in court — and then some. The time has come for this litigation to end.”

Justice Francis X. Flaherty did not participate in the decision because he had filed an affidavit in the underlying case before he became a judge. A lawyer for Alves had sought information from Flaherty in connection with Flaherty’s tenure as mayor of Warwick.

efitzpat@projo.com