What is Conversion?

Conversion is a civil cause of action for taking another persons property without her consent.

What is required for a Conversion action?

Conversion entails the wrongful exercise of dominion (power) and control over the personal (non-land) resources of someone else.

In doing so, a person violates the owner’s lawful right to exclude others from her resources.

The deprivation may be temporary or permanent, but it must constitute a serious invasion of the owner’s legal rights.

• Example: Stealing something from an employer is conversion as is purchasing something that has been stolen. Failing to return something at a designated time, delivering something to the wrong party, and destruction or alteration of someone else’s property also constitutes a conversion.