• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Categories
    • Civil
    • Criminal
    • Juvenile
  • Courts
    • Supreme
    • Appeals
    • Tax
    • SCOTUS
    • 7th Circuit
  • Judges

Case Clips

Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

Horner v. Carter, No. 34A02-1111-DR-1029, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App., June 13, 2012).

June 14, 2012 Filed Under: Civil Tagged With: Appeals, N. Vaidik

Vaidik, J.
Case Summary
Seven years after Dennis Jack Horner (“Husband”) and Marcia (Horner) Carter (“Wife”) reached a mediated settlement agreement during dissolution proceedings, Husband sought to modify the terms of that agreement on the basis of mistake. The trial court denied his request. Husband now appeals, contending that the trial court should have allowed him to offer extrinsic evidence—specifically, communications that occurred during mediation—to show that there was a mistake in the drafting of the agreement. We conclude that Alternative Dispute Resolution Rule 2.11 and Indiana Evidence Rule 408 allow the introduction of mediation communications to establish traditional contract defenses. We also find that the trial court correctly determined that the agreement in this case provided for a property settlement that survived Wife’s remarriage. We affirm.
….
… Here, Husband sought to offer evidence of mediation communications to establish that a mistake occurred in the drafting of the agreement and to modify the agreement based upon that mistake. Thus, this evidence was not offered “to prove liability for or invalidity of the claim or its amount” regarding the housing payments to Wife. Because Husband sought to offer this evidence for a purpose other than those prohibited by Rule 2.11, the trial court erred in excluding it.
….
Affirmed.
FRIEDLANDER, J., and BARNES, J., concur.
 

Read the full opinion

If the link to the opinion in this case isn’t available above, you can search for it at public.courts.in.gov/decisions

Footer

About

Case Clips is a weekly publication of the Indiana Office of Court Services featuring appellate opinions curated by IOCS staff for Indiana judges.

Subscribe
  • Flickr
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Indiana Office of Court Services · courts.in.gov/iocs