In law, conversion is an intentional tort to personal property (same as chattel), where defendant's unjustified willful interference with the chattel deprives plaintiff of possession of such chattel. Plaintiff must have actual possession or an immediate right to possession at the time of the wrong. Absolute ownership is not necessary to establish standing to bring action. Interference in conversion means the exercise of dominion over another's chattel. Defendant must not have legal justification for such interference, and need only have intent to perform the act constituting interference. Intent to dispossess plaintiff of the chattel is not a required element of the claim. In other words, intentional removal of another's chattel under the mistaken belief that it belongs to the actor does not relieve actor of liability under conversion.
Both tangible items and intangible property can be the subject of a claim for conversion. When the domain name sex.com was wrongfully transferred to a con man, a claim for conversion was held to be available against the domain name registrar (Kremen v. Cohen, 325 F.3d 1035 (9th Cir. 2003)).
Stealing something from someone else is one form of conversion. However, conversion is not limited to theft: conversion can also be accomplished by moving, transferring, discarding, hiding, vandalizing, or destroying another person's chattel. Merely using another person's chattel can be grounds for conversion in certain cases.
Remedy for conversion is usually in the form of damages equal to the fair market value of the chattel at the time of conversion. The converter can offer to return possession of the chattel to the complainant, but the complainant is not obligated to accept. If the complainant wants the chattel returned without any additional monetary damages, they can claim a related tort, detinue.
Conversion and other offenses
- See also:
Criminal conversion
Conversion is an interference with another's ownership of property. It is a general intent tort, not a specific intent tort. That means that the intent to take or otherwise deal with the property is enough to support the claim, and it doesn't matter whether the defendant knew that the act would constitute interference with the property of another. Therefore, the defendant's innocent reasons for the act cannot be used as an excuse. It does not matter if the defendant made a mistake. The standard remedy for conversion is a judgment for damages in an amount equal to the fair market value of the property. Punitive damages are also possible, because conversion is an intentional tort.
The standard remedy in a detinue action is an order that the property be returned. The standard remedy in an action for trespass to chattels is a judgment for an amount equal to the value of loss of use of the property. Damages from a trespass claim are based on the harm caused to the plaintiff, rather than the value of the chattel. Many actions can constitute both conversion and trespass. In these cases, a plaintiff must eventually choose which claim to press based on what damages they seek to recover. It is the difference between forcing a rental fee and a total sale upon a defendant.
Recovery of Chattels
One may use a "reasonable" amount of force in order to recover a chattel only if the wrongdoer is either in the process of taking the chattel or the owner of the chattel is in "hot pursuit" of the chattel. One implication of this standard is that chattels that are lent to a wrongdoer may not be recovered by force in most situations. In some jurisdictions deadly force may not be used in the recovery of chattels.
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