Michigan-Based Fleet Sues Wabash National; Claims Trailers Exceed Legal Height Limits

This story appears in the Dec. 22 & 29 print edition of Transport Topics.

A Michigan trucking company is seeking repayment and damages from Wabash National Corp. and one of its dealers after purchasing 30 trailers it said it cannot operate because they exceed legal height limits.

Larsen Trucking Inc. said it first discovered that the custom drop-deck trailers surpass 13 feet, 6 inches when one was turned away at the Ohio Turnpike for violating the state’s height restrictions in April 2013, less than a month after the company received them.

Since then, the trailers have been sitting unused at the truckload carrier’s Greenville, Michigan, headquarters, “not making money,” while Larsen has continued to pay $33,000 each month for the sidelined equipment, said Michael Dantuma, a lawyer representing the company.

Dantuma said Larsen hasn’t been able to find a way to reduce the trailers’ height.

“There’s really no way to make them comply, absent significant structural changes,” he said.

The trailers, which cost about $1.5 million, also were built with a different suspension and first arrived with different tires than Larsen wanted, the company said in its complaint.

Larsen blames the height problem on incorrect manufacturing.

The trucking company’s lawsuit alleges that Wabash failed to build the trailers in accordance with the agreed-upon specifications, but Wabash has denied that claim, according to filings in Kent County Circuit Court in Grand Rapids.

Wabash National told Transport Topics that it does not comment on open legal matters.

The specification sheet for the trailers calls for an overall height of 13 feet, 6 inches, but that same document later refers to an “overall height at rear [empty]” of 162.356 inches, which equates to a fraction of an inch above the height limit.

Dantuma said that slightly overheight value was generated automatically by a Wabash computer program after the trailer dealer entered the specs.

However, the Lafayette, Indiana-based trailer maker outlined multiple defenses in its response to the complaint, including what it described as Larsen’s “failure to exercise reasonable diligence and care” and “failure to mitigate any damages it allegedly suffered.”

Larsen, Wabash and L&V Trailer Sales, the dealer that took the orders, have been engaged in a legal dispute over who bears responsibility for the trailer-height problem since June 2013, when Larsen first filed the suit.

The case has not been resolved and potentially could go to trial.

In August, Judge Christopher Yates said the “small yet significant” disparity between the two height specifications on the order sheet “gives rise to an irreconcilable conflict in the terms of the contract that the court must treat as an ambiguity,” which he said must be left to a jury to decide.

According to Larsen’s complaint, the trucking company agreed in 2012 to purchase 40 of the specialized step-deck trailers for just over $2 million, including taxes and fees.

But Larsen only accepted 30 of the completed trailers, with the other units remaining in possession of the dealership, Dantuma said.

The dealer, L&V, has filed a counterclaim against Larsen seeking payment for those remaining trailers and also has filed a cross-claim against Wabash.

In its cross-claim, the trailer dealer said it has “made every effort” to assist Larsen with the trailer-height issues and has spent “hundreds of hours” attempting to provide an acceptable resolution, but now must defend against claims alleging defects that it said are the “sole responsibility” of Wabash, if they exist.

Perrin Rynders, a lawyer representing L&V, said his client is caught in the middle of the dispute because it has contractual relationships with Larsen and Wabash, but the trucking company and the manufacturer do not have a direct contract.

He likened L&V’s situation to that of a person who is good friends with a married couple that gets divorced.

“You don’t really want to choose sides because you care about them both,” he told TT.

Larsen, which operates a fleet of 58 tractors and about 150 trailers, said it ordered the drop-deck units to serve its two largest customers, whose business accounts for about 60% of its revenue.

Dantuma said Larsen requested 235 size tires and a spring suspension for the trailers, but the first units arrived with smaller 215 tires and an air ride suspension.

The parties agreed to leave the suspension in place, but Wabash hired a contractor to change the tires to the 235 size, according to court documents.

Dantuma also said the trailers ranged in height from about 13 feet 7 inches to 13 feet 9.5 inches with the desired 235 tires, and remained about a quarter- to half an inch too tall, even after reverting to the 215 size to reduce the height.

Special-use permits for the overheight trailers would have cost Larsen nearly $500,000 to run the same miles in 2013, he said.