Debora D'Alessandro v. Douglas Caniglia

Syllabus

The defendant, Douglas Caniglia, appealed from a Family Court judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff, Debora D'Alessandro, granting her motion for relief after final judgment and ordering, inter alia, that the defendant comply with the terms of a previously entered consent order and pay one half of private or Catholic school education for the parties' child, up to and including college. On appeal, the defendant contended that the Family Court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to enforce the consent order and that, even if subject matter jurisdiction was deemed to exist, the trial justice erred in declining to permit parol evidence. The Supreme Court concluded that the Family Court did not err in granting plaintiff's motion for relief after final judgment and ordering that defendant must comply with his obligations under the consent order, including paying for one-half of his son's private university educational expenses. First, the Supreme Court held that the Family Court had jurisdiction to enter and enforce the consent order because the consent order was a contractual amendment to the parties' property settlement agreement. Second, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial justice properly refused to hear evidence regarding alleged duress and mistake before the consent order was executed because the parol evidence rule barred her from doing so. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Family Court.