{"id":3923,"date":"2017-08-05T18:08:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T18:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reunitethestates.org\/?page_id=3923"},"modified":"2017-11-25T07:38:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T07:38:38","slug":"trover","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/reunitethestates.org\/?page_id=3923","title":{"rendered":"Trover – recovery damages for property wrongfully taken & sold, given away, lost, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

trover<\/span>:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. A common-law action for the recovery of damages<\/a> for the conversion <\/strong>(i.e. \u201cillegal selling or giving away of\u201d) of personal property, the damages<\/a> generally being measured by the property’s value. <\/strong>\u2014 aka\u00a0trover and conversion<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/b><\/em>[1]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Excerpt from\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Benjamin J. Shipman’s\u00a0Handbook of Common-Law Pleading<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Henry Winthrop Ballantine Ed., 3rd Ed. 1923):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cTrover may be maintained for all kinds of personal property, including legal documents, but not where articles are severed from land by an adverse possessor<\/a>, at least until recovery of possession of the land.\u00a0 It lies for the misappropriation of specific money, but not for breach of an obligation to pay where there is no duty to return specific money.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>[2]<\/span><\/p>\n

conversion<\/span>:
\n<\/strong><\/span>n.<\/em> (14c.)<\/span><\/p>\n

1. The act of changing from one form to another; the process of being exchanged. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Tort & criminal law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>The wrongful possession or disposition of another\u2019s property as if it were one\u2019s own; an act or series of acts of willful interference, without lawful justification, with an item of property in a manner inconsistent with another\u2019s right, whereby that other person is deprived of the use and possession of the property. \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0convert, vb<\/em>. \u2014 conversionary, adj<\/em>. [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Excerpt from\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>R.F.V. Heuston’s\u00a0Salmond on the Law of Torts<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(17th ed. 1977):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThere are three distinct methods by which one man may deprive another of his property, and so\u00a0be guilty of a conversion and liable in an action for trover \u2014<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(1) by wrongly taking it,
\n(2) by wrongly detaining it, and
\n(3) by wrongly disposing of it. <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The term conversion was originally limited to the third of these cases.\u00a0 To convert goods meant to dispose of them, or make away with them, to deal with them, in such a way that neither owner nor wrongdoer had any further possession of them: for example, by consuming them, or by destroying them, or by selling them, or otherwise delivering them to some third person.\u00a0 Merely to take another\u2019s goods, however wrongfully, was not to convert them. Merely to detain them in defiance of the owner\u2019s title was not to convert them. The fact that conversion in its modern sense includes instances of all three modes in which a man may be wrongfully deprived of his goods, & not of one mode only\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span>is the outcome of a process of historical development whereby, by means of legal fictions and other devices, the action of trover was enabled to extend its limits and appropriate the territories that rightly belonged to other and earlier forms of action.<\/span>\u201d<\/strong> [3]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Excerpt from\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>William Geldart’s\u00a0Introduction to English Law<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(D.C.M. Yardley eds 9th ed.1984):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy conversion of goods is meant any act in relation to goods which amounts to an exercise of dominion over them, inconsistent with the owner\u2019s right of property. It does not include mere acts of damage, or even an asportation which does not amount to a denial of the owner\u2019s right of property; but it does include such acts as taking possession, refusing to give up on demand, disposing of the goods to a third person, or destroying them.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>[4]<\/span><\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Disclaimer:<\/span><\/span><\/strong> All material throughout this website is pertinent to people everywhere, and is being utilized in accordance with Fair Use<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Black\u2019s Law Dictionary\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>Deluxe Tenth Edition<\/b><\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/span>by Henry Campbell Black, Editor in Chief Bryan A. Garner. ISBN: 978-0-314-61300-4<\/strong><\/p>\n

[2]:\u00a0Benjamin J. Shipman, Handbook of Common-Law Pleading<\/em><\/a> \u00a7 43, at 99 (Henry Winthrop Ballantine Ed., 3rd Ed. 1923)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

[3]:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts<\/em><\/a> 94 (17th ed. 1977).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

[4]:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0William Geldart, Introduction to English Law<\/em><\/a> 143 (D.C.M. Yardley eds 9th ed.1984)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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