Definition of detinue
Noun
detinue (plural detinues)
- (law) A legal action to reclaim goods wrongfully detained.
Further reading
In tort law, detinue is an action for the wrongful detention of goods. It is initiated by an individual who claims to have a greater right to their immediate possession than the current possessor. For an action in detinue to succeed, a claimant must first prove that he had better right to possession of the chattel than the defendant and second that the defendant refused to return the chattel once demanded by the claimant.
Detinue allows for a remedy of damages for the value of the chattel, but unlike most other interference torts, detinue also allows for the recovery of the specific chattel being withheld.
Detinue in United States Law
In the United States, detinue is a possessory action having for its object the recovery of specific personal property and damages for its detention. At common law an action of detinue would lie for the recovery of specific personal property unlawfully detained, or its value, and for damages for its detention. Detinue differs from replevin in that possession of the chattel in controversy is not changed until after the judgment in detinue, whereas in replevin possession is changed at the beginning of the proceeding. The gist of an action in detinue is that the defendant is wrongfully in possession of personal property which belongs to the plaintiff whereas replevin lies only where there has been a wrongful taking or seizure of the property. Detinue is distinguished from common-law trover which is for the recovery of damages for the wrongful conversion of personal property. In modern practice, detinue has been superseded almost entirely by statutory actions for the recovery of personal property.
England and Wales
In England and Wales, detinue was abolished from 1 January 1978 by the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977. However, the tort of conversion was extended at the same time to cover circumstances that had previously been covered only by detinue.
References:
- Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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