PAOLA DEL FABBRO
v.
LUCA BONETTO
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A marital settlement agreement provision requiring parents to cooperate on major decisions including immigration applications and not to unreasonably withhold consent is ambiguous and enforceable, requiring an evidentiary hearing to determine whether a parent's withholding of consent was reasonable.
[1] A marital settlement agreement provision is ambiguous when the phrase 'immigration application' is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation based on the agr…
[2] When a marital settlement agreement is ambiguous regarding the parties' intent, an appellate court must remand for an evidentiary hearing to consider parol and extrinsic…
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“An agreement is ambiguous if it 'is susceptible to two different interpretations, each one of which is reasonably inferred from the terms' of the agreement.”
Establishes the legal standard for finding contractual ambiguity in marital settlement agreements.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceFormer Wife and Former Husband divorced and shared parental responsibility of their minor child, a dual national of Italy and Great Britain on a stude…
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Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida
Opinion filed September2, 2026. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.
No. 3D26-0150 Lower Tribunal No. 23-3406-FC-04
Paola Del Fabbro, Appellant,
VS.
Luca Bonetto, Appellee.
An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Veronica Diaz, Judge.
Fell Law Group, PLLC, and Brian D. Fell (Plantation), for appellant. Luca Bonetto, in proper person.
Before SCALES, C.J., and MILLER and LOBREE, JJ.
SCALES, C.J.
Appellant Paola Del Fabbro (Former Wife) and appellee Luca Bonetto (Former Husband) dispute the meaning and impact of a phrase in their
Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA).1 Specifically, Former Wife appeals the trial court's January 21, 2026 order (the “Challenged Order") that denied her May 22, 2024 motion to enforce section 12.8(h) of the MSA (the “Motion").
The parties' minor child is a dual national of Italy and Great Britain, present in the United States on a student visa. Former Wife wishes to file an immigration application for the child to become a permanent resident here. Former Husband has withheld his consent.
Former Wife's Motion argued Former Husband violated the terms of the MSA's section 12.8(h) and sought to compel Former Husband to consent to the child's immigration application. At a December 8, 2025 hearing on the Motion, without taking any evidence, the trial court ruled, as a legal matter, that section 12.8(h) contains no enforceable obligation on the part of either party. In other words, the trial court viewed this provision as merely requiring the parties to cooperate in deciding whether to apply for their child's
permanent residency in the United States. In the Challenged Order, the trial court appears to equate section 12.8(h)'s phrase "immigration application” with the renewal of the child's student visa,2 suggesting a different meaning for the phrase “immigration application” from the one the trial court pronounced at the hearing. Yet both interpretations appear to be contained in the Challenged Order.
On our de novo review3 of the record, we are compelled to reverse the Challenged Order denying Former Wife's Motion and, as set forth below, remand for further consideration of the Motion.
First, section 12.8(h) is ambiguous. As evidenced by the parties' contrary legal arguments – evidenced not only by their briefing but by the transcript from the December 8, 2025 hearing the phrase "immigration application” as used in section 12.8(h) is susceptible to more than one meaning. "An agreement is ambiguous if it ‘is susceptible to two different interpretations, each one of which is reasonably inferred from the terms' of the agreement.” McClune v. McClune, 79 So. 3d 194, 197 (Fla. 5th DCA
2012) (quoting Miller v. Kase, 789 So. 2d 1095, 1097-98 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)). Because the parties' intent in crafting section 12.8 is not apparent, leading to contractual ambiguity, the consideration of parol and extrinsic evidence in an evidentiary hearing becomes necessary. Riera v. Riera, 86 So. 3d 1163, 1166 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012).
Second, assuming section 12.8(h)'s “immigration application" contemplates something different from renewal of the child's student visa, the trial court will need to conduct an evidentiary hearing on whether Former Husband's withholding of his consent to the immigration application was reasonable. The plain language of section 12.8(h) imposes not only an obligation to cooperate with the other spouse on the child's immigration application, but also an express obligation on each parent to refrain from unreasonably withholding consent to such immigration application. Hence, on remand, the trial court should conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Former Husband's withholding of his consent to the immigration application is reasonable.
We therefore remand this case to the trial court to conduct further proceedings on the Motion that are not inconsistent with this opinion. We express no opinion on the merits of the parties' respective arguments.
Reversed and remanded with instructions.