Conversion

The classic MBE pattern hands you a borrowed or mistakenly-taken chattel and asks you to choose the remedy, not just label the tort. The “tell” is a phrase signaling severity: the defendant destroyed, sold, kept it for months, or refused to return it. That degree of interference points to conversion and a forced sale — the defendant pays as if he bought it. Lesser meddling (a brief move, a short use, a dent) stays trespass to chattels. Watch for good-faith mistake: it is no defense, because conversion is intentional only as to the act of dominion, not as to any wrong or as to who actually owns the chattel.

Students confuse conversion with trespass to land — but land cannot be converted; only tangible personal property qualifies, plus intangibles merged in a document (a stock certificate, promissory note, or bond). Keep conversion’s full-value recovery distinct from ordinary compensatory damages like lost wages or pain and suffering. Memory hook: conversion “converts” the defendant into a buyer — he pays full price and keeps the goods.