In Re Marriage of Williams

The appellant, Ralph Lee Williams, and the respondent, Annabelle Lowry Williams, were married on March 9, 1957, and separated on September 4, 1969. Two children were born as issue of the marriage: James on March 4, 1959, and Katherine on September 9, 1963. At the time of the marriage, Ralph was a young auto salesman with assets of less than $5,000. At the time of the separation, the parties were millionaires as the result of Ralph’s success in acquiring and operating various business enterprises, primarily auto agencies.

On September 5, 1969, Annabelle filed a complaint for separate maintenance or divorce. When an attempted reconciliation failed, Ralph was extremely desirous of effecting a property settlement inasmuch as the success of his business operations depended on maintaining lines of credit with major lending institutions and the pendency of the action would naturally tend to impair his credit standing. In any event, the parties entered into serious settlement negotiations, both directly and through their respective counsel, which culminated in the execution of a marital settlement agreement on November 15, 1969, in which Annabelle transferred the bulk of the…