Trover is an action brought to recover the value of personal items of property, wrongfully converted by another to his own use. The action seeks a remedy for the conversion, not the taking of the item. The remedy sought is the replacement value of the property before it was converted for the other's use.
The defendant in a conversion action is someone who found the item. The defendant cannot be a bailee who lost the item or destroyed it through negligence. In the case of negligent loss, the action is more properly brought as one in negligence. Trover has been replaced by an action for conversion in modern law.
