Detinue
idea · 2 works · 4 mentions · 6 anchored passages
detinue · writ of detinue
in the texts
The Law of Torts
An old common law form of action for the recovery of chattels wrongfully detained.
if at the time of the wrong done the person entitled to possess was not in actual legal possession, his remedy was detinue, or, in the developed system, trover.
Detinue, the older form of action for the recovery of chattels, was not abolished, but it was generally preferable to treat the detention as a conversion and sue in trover, so that trover practically superseded detinue, as the writ of right and the various assizes, the older and once the only proper remedies whereby a freeholder could recover possession of the land, were superseded by ejectment, a …
The technical distinction between an action of detinue or trover and a special action on the case here corresponds to the substantial and permanent difference between a wrongful act for which the defendant’s rightful possession is merely the opportunity, and a more or less plausible abuse of the right itself.
The Genius of the Common Law
A form of action involving a fictitious, non-deniable allegation of bailment, requiring more special pleading than trover but less than trespass.
or if you prefer to sue in detinue, and state a fictitious delivery or bailment of the goods to the defendant (which fiction he is not allowed to deny), you will have rather more special pleading than in trover, but considerably less than in trespass.