Limitation of Actions Consultation - Law Commission

(b) Successive conversions
3.110 Section 3(1) of the 1980 Act provides for successive conversions in the following
terms:
Where any cause of action in respect of the conversion of a chattel has
accrued to any person and, before he recovers possession of the
chattel, a further conversion takes place, no action shall be brought in
respect of the further conversion after the expiration of six years from
the accrual of the cause of action in respect of the original conversion.
3.111 So, where there is a second honest conversion, 237
and the plaintiff has not
recovered the goods, time does not re-start, in respect of the second converter,
from the date of the second conversion, but runs from the date of the original
conversion. This will be the case although the owner may not know the identity of
the first converter, 238
or indeed that the first conversion has taken place. It is even
possible that, by the time the second conversion takes place, the six-year period
from the first conversion may have expired and so there is no possible claim in
respect of the second conversion.
Example 2 In 1985 D1 takes P’s clock, honestly believing it to be his own. In
1992 D1 sells it to D2. The limitation period in respect of an action for conversion
against D1 will expire in 1991. Any action in respect of further conversions will be
impossible after that date, and so P will have no right against D2.
(c) Theft 239
3.112 Where there is a theft of a chattel from a plaintiff, section 4 applies. “Theft” is not
exhaustively defined, but it is specified 240
to include any conduct outside England
and Wales which would be theft if committed in England and Wales, obtaining
chattels by deception 241
and blackmail. Apart from these expressly included types
of conduct, “theft” probably means, and is limited to, theft as it is defined in
sections 1 - 6 of the Theft Act 1968.
237 For the sake of brevity we will use the expression “honest conversion” to refer to a
conversion which does not constitute a theft. This will include, for instance, a bona fide
purchase of converted goods (See Hollins v Fowler (1875) LR 7 HL 757), but also
conversions which are dishonest but do not amount to theft, as when a person borrows
property such as a car without the owner’s permission but intending to return it after use
(and thus not coming within Theft Act 1968, s 6). See Clerk & Lindsell on Torts (17th ed
1995), para 13.16. The situation where an honest conversion is followed by a theft is dealt
within para 3.115 below.
238 RB Policies at Lloyds v Butler [1950] 1 KB 76. The first conversion in that case was a theft
and, following the introduction of the theft provisions in s 4 of the 1980 Act, similar facts
would now produce a different result (see para 3.114 below).
239 See J C Smith, The Law of Theft (8th ed 1997) for further background on the criminal law
of theft.
240 Section 4(5) of the Limitation Act 1980.
241 As per Theft Act 1968, s 15(1), but in England and Wales or elsewhere.
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