“Come in,” I say as I let you into the house. “I was afraid that you weren’t coming back.”
“I just came to get my baseball cap,” you reply, as you step in and look warily around the room. “Where are your cats?” you ask.
“They’re downstairs watching television,” I answer, indicating the open door leading downstairs. Gunshots can be heard coming from the TV.
“What does your cap look like?” I ask.
“It is a St. Louis Cardinals cap,” you say. “It has a large, red cardinal on the front.”
“Oh,” I say, as I glance at the cats’ toy box. “Are you sure that you left it here?”
“Yes,” you say, as you follow my glance to the toy box.
“What’s this?” you ask, as you walk to the toy box and pick up what looks like it might have been a baseball cap at one time. The remnants of a cardinal dangle from red threads onto a torn visor.
“I guess it’s my fault for leaving it here where your cats could destroy it,” you say.
“No,” I reply. “I am responsible for replacing your cap under the principle of conversion.
“What’s conversion?” you ask.
“Conversion,” I explain, “is when someone converts the property of another to his own use so as to deprive the owner of the property permanently.”
“So when you let your cats destroy my favorite baseball cap, that was conversion?”
“Yes,” I reply.
“And you have to replace my Cardinals cap?”
“Yes,” I say.
“So I am in the right, and you and your cats are in the wrong?”
“Yes,” I admit.
“Are you sure that you wrote this article?”
Allen Drescher has practiced law in Ashland and Southern Oregon since 1973. His practice areas include real estate and business law, estate planning and elder law.
© Allen Drescher
