Conversion is essentially a tort aimed at theft of personal property. It is defined in the case
916470 Alberta Ltd. v. Standard Life Assurance Co 2005 ABQB 123 at paragraph 22:
22 Black's Law Dictionary, 6th ed., defines "conversion" as:
An unauthorized assumption and exercise of the right of ownership over goods or personal chattels belonging to another, to the alteration of their condition or the exclusion of the owner's rights.
And at 25: .[To borrow the words of Phillips J. "[C]onversion arises where a person takes somebody else's money that he or she should have had or didn't have access to": Massey v. Brost, Massey v. Brost (1996), 185 A.R. 81, 1996 CarswellAlta 388 para. 43.
The remedy for conversion is the defendant pays the value of the converted object. The defendant can be treated as having bought the object.
If someone has wrongly taken your property, please feel free to contact us.
The information contained in this article is not legal advice. No solicitor client relationship is formed through this article. The reader is encouraged to retain counsel for advice in these matters.
