Family feud threatens Charlotte warehouse equipment company

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A state judge says the CEO of a closely held Charlotte business does not have to advance his son — and former company president — money to defend himself in an internecine court case involving claims and counterclaims of fraud, breach of duty and other financial improprieties within the family business.

But Judge Michael Robinson of the N.C. Business Court says that Joe Wheeler’s company will most likely have to pay some of the costs for Gray Wheeler’s defense eventually. In his ruling last week, Robinson says “Gray has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of his claim” and that his contractual right to indemnification for legal actions against him as a company officer is clear. But he says it is not clear that Gray Wheeler will suffer irreparable harm if the money is not advanced now.

The lawsuit, now in its second year, involves Yale Carolinas Inc., a warehouse equipment sales, rental and servicing business the elder Wheeler founded in 1988. It operates in Charlotte and 10 other locations across the Southeast under the name Wheeler Material Handling. Gray Wheeler joined the company in 2005 and became its president in 2009.

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