One who wrongfully detains a thing is an implied trustee thereof for the benefit of the owner.
S.D. Codified Laws § 55-1-7
Wrongful detention creates implied trust
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Strain (1988)
Most recently applied in Briggs v. Briggs (July 2019)
Source: SDC 1939, § 59.0102 (1).
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.