It’s on the buyer. As the person pulling the trailer, it was absolutely her responsibility to make sure the rig was properly equipped and connected, regardless of what information the seller may have given.
Driving off without verifying the proper attachment of hitch, chains, and lights is just plain negligent. Trust, but verify. She’s lucky she didn’t kill someone.
[QUOTE=soloudinhere;8638531]
It’s not illegal to sell an improperly equipped trailer, it’s illegal to drive it.
I can sell someone my not-street-legak dirtbike. If they choose to ride it home - their choice and not legal.
People buy trailers all the time that aren’t road worthy for any number of reasons. If I chose to hook up a trailer with a seized bearing and try to haul it, that’s on me, not the seller.[/QUOTE]
I didn’t say it was illegal to sell the trailer; just that the sale may be voidable.
Seems like a sleazy seller to let it go that way without saying anything - but that in itself is not illegal. People sell all sorts of junk and the seller was probably just happy to find someone to take it.
Courts and lawyers may not agree with me in this case… Like a pilot of an aircraft or captain of a ship, the driver of a highway vehicle is in command and bears responsibility for the safe operation. Example …Lose control of your car on black ice, yet you’re still chargeable as driving too fast for conditions.
[QUOTE=IPEsq;8638769]
I didn’t say it was illegal to sell the trailer; just that the sale may be voidable.[/QUOTE]
I guess without the bill of sale there’s no way to know for sure, but I would be extremely surprised if there was any warranty, express or implied, in the bill of sale.
I would presume that it would be an as-is sale.
Based on the photo of the trailer I would guess not enough $$ is involved in the original sale to make it worth producing case law over.
And I would imagine there would also be the question of, if the sale is void, is the buyer still on the hook for the damage to the trailer that has now reverted to seller? could well still leave buyer in the hole.
Now, I drove my new to me trailer home without lights but with brakes and chains because the previous owner’s boyfriend had gotten creative with the wiring. I had someone in a follow car the entire way, and it took 2 weeks to sort out the wiring on the truck and trailer before I was able to haul it again. Great buy though.
[QUOTE=IPEsq;8638769]
I didn’t say it was illegal to sell the trailer; just that the sale may be voidable.[/QUOTE]
Curious…how would the sale be voidable if it is perfectly legal to sell a trailer that is not road worthy? What grounds would there be for it to be voidable?
[QUOTE=hosspuller;8638974]
Courts and lawyers may not agree with me in this case… Like a pilot of an aircraft or captain of a ship, the driver of a highway vehicle is in command and bears responsibility for the safe operation. Example …Lose control of your car on black ice, yet you’re still chargeable as driving too fast for conditions.[/QUOTE]
Not in Oregon. The state gets sued for not keeping the road surface free of hazards or from not providing enough warning of conditions, or for not having the “required” free zone, or a million others excuses that the drivers lawyer can dream up. Is ridiculous. :mad:
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;8637311]
I bought a brand new trailer at a horse expo. The trailer was not on-site, it was back at their dealership. A few days later i went to pick it up. They hooked it all for me on my existing 1 7/8 frame hitch and off i went. Hit a couple stop lights and accelerated a couple times and there was a big clunking noise each time. I knew something wasnt right so turned around and drove right back. Sure enough, the trailer was meant for a 2 inch ball. Professionals did this to me ![/QUOTE]
(looking up at you as you talk down to me) Sorry i should have said i had a good quality frame hitch which was set up with an 1 7/8 ball. The dealership should have noticed the size of the ball. It is their business to do so. They put the correct ball on and off i went.
[QUOTE=trubandloki;8639551]
Curious…how would the sale be voidable if it is perfectly legal to sell a trailer that is not road worthy? What grounds would there be for it to be voidable?[/QUOTE]
If it is not clearly an “as is” sale, then there could be breach of an implied warranty of merchantability (that the thing is fit for its ordinary purpose), making the sale voidable. Re: soloudinhere’s comment, implied warranties are never in a bill of sale, as they are implied, not express.
There is another exception to this implied warranty (in addition to having an express “as is” disclaimer), though, that may apply. If the defect is readily ascertainable upon inspection of the goods, then that can keep you from relying on the merchantability warranty. I agree that buyer couldn’t just claim to be ignorant about chain laws.
But, these are the rules as set out in the UCC, and each state may have its own variation.
I’ll use an example. I sold an espresso machine on craigslist. It needed a new gasket for the boiler, maybe some other parts. It would not brew through the brew basket but rather spew water everywhere. I ordered some parts but did not have the right tools to do the work myself. Sending it to the manufacturer for repair was going to cost way more than worth it for this machine.
I sold it very cheaply with a full disclaimer of all of its issues. Someone decided it was worth the risk to try to fix it. If I had sold it without such disclosure or any other express disclaimer of all warranties, then the sale could be voidable when the buyer discovered that in the state I sold it in, it didn’t actually work to brew espresso. It is not illegal to sell someone broken goods. People buy broken things all the time, to try to repair them, to re-purpose them for something else, etc. But, the sale may not be a good sale if the buyer is under the assumption (by way of implied warranty) that the thing is not broken.
From my extensive legal background (none actually, that is a joke) I thought anything that was a vehicle of that age was considered sold as is unless stated otherwise.
100% the buyer’s fault.
Even if someone sells a car to you and says “ready to go, drive it home!”, it’s up to you to make sure all the lugs are tightened before you go flying down the highway.
The buyer (and her BF) hitched it up and drove it off. Seller wasn’t responsible for it as soon as the money changed hands.
I bought a cart to drive my horse with, and it was sold in driving condition… still up to me to make sure the covers on the shaves (shafts?) weren’t going to crack and cause a wreck.
I could go on and on. Buyer beware!
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;8641539]
(looking up at you as you talk down to me) Sorry i should have said i had a good quality frame hitch which was set up with an 1 7/8 ball. The dealership should have noticed the size of the ball. It is their business to do so. They put the correct ball on and off i went.[/QUOTE]
Did they sell you the hitch? If not, why is it up to them to ensure the safety of something they didn’t equip or sell?
I guess at least you noticed before somethibg crazy happened but if it really took a 2" ball and you showed up with a 1 7/8, that’s not something that someone is likely to see. A 1/8" diameter difference is just not that large visually and I can’t imagine they expected that a person buying a horse trailer would show up equipped with a hitch with a max rating of 2000lbs to take it home with.
I looked at hundreds of bumper pull trailers when buying mine, every single one took a 2 5/16 ball. Seems the experience of others here as well.
Looking forward to the day someone catches on and you need a license to drive a trailer. Or at least a heavy one.
No, the seller’s boyfriend hooked it up.
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