Conversion

In equity.

— The transformation of one species of property into another, as money into land or land into money;

— or, more particularly, a fiction of law, by which equity assumes that such a transformation has taken place (contrary to the fact) when it is rendered necessary by the equities of the case, — as to carry into effect the directions of a will or settlement, — and by which the property so dealt with becomes invested with the properties and attributes of that into which it is supposed to have been converted.

At law. 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.

44 Me. 197; 36 N. H. 311; 45 Wis. 262.

Conversion is defined to be an unauthorized assumption and exercise of the right of ownership over goods belonging to another to the exclusion of the owner's rights. A constructive conversion takes place when a person does such acts in reference to the goods of another as amount in law to appropriation of the property to himself. Every unauthorized taking of personal property, and all intermeddling with it, beyond the extent of the authority conferred, in case a limited authority has been given, with intent so to apply and dispose of it as to alter its condition or interfere with the owner's dominion, is a conversion. 68 N. Y. 24. "Conversion" and "carrying away" are not synonymous nor convertible terms. There may be a conversion without any carrying away.

26 Ala. 101.