STEVEN KLAZKIN, APPELLANT,
v.
JAYNEE RICHMAN-KLAZKIN, APPELLEE
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In this family law case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed an order requiring the father to pay 40% of his daughter's summer camp expenses under a marital settlement agreement. The court held that the father forfeited his argument that the agreement distinguished between day care and summer camp expenses by failing to raise it at trial.
The court affirmed the order requiring the father to pay 40% of past and future summer camp expenses. The ambiguous language in the settlement agreement permitted the trial court to consider extrinsic evidence regarding the parties' intent. The father forfeited his argument that the agreement distinguished between day care and summer camp expenses by failing to raise this argument at trial.
[1] An ambiguous provision in a marital settlement agreement allows the trial court to consider extrinsic evidence to clarify the parties' intent.
[2] The purpose of an evidentiary hearing concerning ambiguous contract language is to permit parties to present evidence regarding their intent.
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The language of paragraph eighteen of the marital settlement agreement was ambiguous. Thus, the trial court was able to consider extrinsic evidence to explain or clarify the ambiguous language.”
Establishes the legal standard for interpreting ambiguous contract language in settlement agreements, citing Levitt v. Levitt.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceSteven Klazkin and Jaynee Richman-Klazkin were parties to a marital settlement agreement containing ambiguous language regarding expense obligations. …
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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GROSS, J.
We grant the appellant/father’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our previous opinion, and issue the following opinion.
We affirm the order requiring appellant to pay forty percent of his daughter’s summer camp expenses and to reimburse the appellee/mother for these expenses from past years.
The language of paragraph eighteen of the marital settlement agreement was ambiguous. Thus, the trial court was able to consider extrinsic evidence to explain or clarify the ambiguous language. See Levitt v. Levitt, 699 So. 2d 755, 757 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). The purpose of an evidentiary hearing concerning ambiguous language is to allow each side to present evidence on the intent of the parties regarding the disputed provision. See Carlson v. Carlson, 671 So. 2d 280, 281 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996); Wagner v. Wagner, 885 So. 2d 488, 492-93 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004).
On July 28, 2003, the trial court held a hearing on various issues, including the mother’s request for reimbursement for summer camp expenses. On September 4, 2003, the trial court entered an amended order which, inter alia, directed appellant to reimburse the mother for summer camp expenses.
We have reviewed the transcript of the hearing. The primary focus of the hearing concerned the mother’s motion to modify the father’s visitation and her request for increased child support. The issue of summer camp expenses arose only briefly at the hearing. The mother testified that the father had been ordered to pay forty percent of his daughter’s summer camp expenses, indicated that he had paid on one occasion, and claimed that he owed her $6,000. The father said that he had paid forty percent of the summer camp expenses “up until my involvement in where [my daughter] was going,” that he had not been “given any opportunity to even know [where my daughter] was even going to camp,” and that he had paid only for the first year of camp because he was not “even told that [my daughter] was going to a camp.”
Thus, at the hearing to pay for camp, the father did not challenge his obligation under the marital settlement agreement as he does on appeal. While the father may have believed that it was not fair that he should pay for summer camp expenses, he did not argue at trial that the settlement agreement drew a distinction between day care expenses and summer camp. Therefore, the trial court was within its discretion in ordering the former husband to pay for forty percent of his daughter’s past and future summer camp expenses.
Affirmed.
KLEIN and MAY, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Plemondon v. Alberto Fernandez, M.D., 699 So. 2d 755 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
- Levitt v. Levitt, 699 So. 2d 755 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)
- Jami S. Wagner v. Wagner, 885 So. 2d 488 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004)
- Carlson v. Andree Carlson, 671 So. 2d 280 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)