Legal Definitions - detinue

Detinue is a legal action used to recover specific personal property that is being wrongfully held by another party. Instead of seeking monetary compensation for the item's value, the primary goal of detinue is to compel the return of the actual physical property itself to its rightful owner.

• Scenario: A borrowed item not returned.

  Imagine Sarah lends her rare, vintage guitar to her friend, Mark, for a few weeks. After the agreed-upon time, Sarah asks for her guitar back, but Mark refuses to return it, claiming he needs it indefinitely or that he now considers it his. Sarah doesn't want money for the guitar; she wants her unique instrument back.

  This illustrates detinue because Mark is wrongfully detaining Sarah's specific personal property (the guitar), and Sarah's legal action would aim to force him to return that exact item.

• Scenario: A repair shop wrongfully withholding property.

  A customer takes their custom-built motorcycle to a mechanic for a specific repair. The repair is completed, and the customer pays the agreed-upon fee in full. However, the mechanic then refuses to release the motorcycle, perhaps due to a separate, unrelated dispute or a misunderstanding about additional work. The customer's main concern is getting their unique motorcycle back, not just its monetary equivalent.

  Here, the mechanic is wrongfully detaining the customer's specific motorcycle despite payment. A detinue action would seek the physical return of the motorcycle to its owner.

• Scenario: Disputed ownership of an heirloom.

  After a family dispute, one sibling, Emily, is holding a valuable antique family heirloom, a unique hand-carved chest, that rightfully belongs to her brother, David, according to their late parents' will. Emily refuses to hand over the chest. David doesn't want the cash value; he wants the sentimental and historical family chest itself.

  This is an example of detinue because Emily is wrongfully detaining a specific, identifiable piece of personal property (the chest) that legally belongs to David, and David's legal recourse would be to compel its return.