All property obtained by larceny, robbery or burglary, shall be restored to the owner; and no sale, whether in good faith on the part of the purchaser or not, shall divest the owner of his or her rights to such property; and it shall be the duty of the officer who shall arrest any person charged as principal or accessory in any robbery or larceny, to secure the property alleged to have been stolen, and he or she shall be answerable for the same, and shall annex a schedule thereof to his or her return of the warrant.
RCW 10.79.050
Restoration of stolen property to owner—Duties of officers.
Applied in 11 court decisions — leading case 114 Wash. 2d 724 - State v. Marks (1990)
Most recently applied in DIMENSION FUNDING, LLC v. DK Associates, Inc. (September 2008)
2010 c 8 s 1063; Code 1881 s 851; 1873 p 192 s 57; 1854 p 84 s 51; RRS s 2129.
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: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.