Evans v. Mason
| Decision Date | 30 July 1886 |
| Citation | 64 N.H. 98,5 A. 766 |
| Parties | EVANS v. MASON. |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Reserved case, from Cheshire county.
Trover for a horse and harness. The plaintiff's evidence tended to prove that the defendant hired the plaintiff's horse, wagon, and harness to go from Swanzey to a certain house in Keene, and then to return directly back to Swanzey without stopping; that he went to the place named, drove thence on the direct route towards Swanzey, to a stable, where he waited half an hour for a friend, and when his friend arrived he ordered the horse to be fed; that in a few minutes the stable took fire, and the horse and harness were burned. The defendant objected that there was no evidence of a conversion.
D. H. Deadward, for plaintiff.
Batchelder & Faulkner, for defendant.
To constitute a conversion of chattels there must be some exercise of dominion over the property in repudiation of or inconsistent with the owner's right. Heald v. Carey, 11 C. B. 977; Cooley, Torts, 448; Hyde v. Noble, 13 N. H. 499; Johnson v. Farr, 60 N. H. 426. It is not every wrongful intermeddling with, asportation, or detention of another's goods that amounts to a conversion. Acts which of themselves imply an assertion of title to, or right of dominion over, another's property—as a sale, letting, or destruction of it—may be a conversion, although the defendant has honestly mistaken his rights; but acts which do not of themselves imply such assertion of title or right of dominion will not sustain an action of trover, unless they are done with the intention of depriving the owner, permanently or temporarily, of the property. Spooner v. Manchester, 133 Mass. 273; Fouldes v. Willoughby, 8 Mees. & W. 540. Non-feasance, acts of negligence, or the breach of a contract standing alone will not in general effect a conversion. Bowlin v. Nye, 10 Cush. 416; Heald v. Carey, 11 C. B. 977; Wentworth v. McDuffie, 48 N. H. 402; Eaton v. Hill, 50 N. H. 235; Woodman v. Hubbard, 25 N. H. 67.
The only misconduct of the defendant here complained of is his delay or non-action. This, of itself, was not inconsistent with a full recognition by the defendant of the plaintiff's title and right of dominion, and it is accompanied with no evidence tending to show an intention on the part of the defendant to deprive the plaintiff of his title or dominion either permanently or temporarily. It was, at most, a mere breach of the contract. Standing alone, it no more tends to prove a...
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...217 N.W. 11. There must be an "intention" present in connection with the act of conversion under the circumstances of this case. Evans v. Mason, 5 A. 766. 9 Words & Phrases, A landlord is not guilty of conversion of the personal property left on the leased premises of an evicted tenant, whe......
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...delivery to a third person of goods owned by another or to the possession of which he is entitled constitute a conversion. Evans v. Mason, 64 N.H. 98, 99, 5 A. 766; Prosser, Law of Torts (3rd ed.1964) s. 15, p. The fact that the defendant acted in good faith in making the sale, as the refer......
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Jones v. Stone
...the plaintiff's property in denial of, and inconsistent with, his ownership, and was therefore a conversion of the property. Evans v. Mason, 64 N. H. 98, 5 Atl. 766; Baker v. Beers, 64 N. H. 102, 6 Atl. 35; Porell v. Cavanaugh, 69 N. H. 364, 41 Atl. 860; Knapp v. Guyer, 75 N. H. 397, 74 Atl......
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