Dickson, C.J.
When the parties’ marriage was dissolved in 2005, the trial court approved a settlement agreement reached by the parties following mediation. Appellant’s App’x at 19. In 2011, the husband initiated the present proceeding, seeking in part “to modify the maintenance provision in the Settlement Agreement,” id. at 27, in order to terminate his liability for monthly housing payments to the wife after her remarriage. At the evidentiary hearing the trial court excluded from evidence the husband’s testimony regarding statements he claimed to have made to the mediator during the mediation process, and thereafter denied the husband’s request for modification of his monthly housing payment obligation. The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of relief, but opined that the trial court’s exclusion of the husband’s testimony was in error, albeit harmless error. Horner v. Carter, 969 N.E.2d 111, 118 (Ind. Ct. App. 2012). We granted transfer thereby vacating the Court of Appeals opinion, except for those portions that are summarily affirmed herein. Ind. Appellate Rule 58(A)(2).
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The Court of Appeals concluded that the husband’s statements during the mediation could be admitted as extrinsic evidence to aid in the construction of an ambiguous agreement. We disagree. Indiana judicial policy strongly urges the amicable resolution of disputes and thus embraces a robust policy of confidentiality of conduct and statements made during negotiation and mediation. [Footnote omitted.] The benefits of compromise settlement agreements outweigh the risks that such policy may on occasion impede access to otherwise admissible evidence on an issue.
In the present case, the husband’s purported oral statements made to the mediator during mediation clearly fall within the express inadmissibility of mediation evidence akin to the offer or acceptance of a compromise on a claim of disputed liability or validity. A.D.R. 2.11 (incorporating Evid. R. 408). Furthermore, applying Vernon, the husband’s testimony, seeking to establish and enforce an oral agreement allegedly reached in mediation, must likewise be treated as confidential and inadmissible. The trial court was correct to exclude the husband’s mediation statements from evidence on his petition to modify the parties’ settlement agreement.
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The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Rucker, David, Massa, and Rush, JJ., concur.