California First-Year Law Students' Exam (Baby Bar) — MCTortsMedium
A disgruntled employee, seeking to sabotage their company, remotely accessed the company's internal server without authorization and deleted several critical project files. The company suffered significant delays and financial losses as a result. What intentional tort has the employee most likely committed?
- AIntentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
- BConversion
- CFalse Imprisonment
- DTrespass to Chattels
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Conversion
Conversion is the intentional exercise of dominion and control over a chattel that so seriously interferes with the right of another to control it that the actor may justly be required to pay the other the full value of the chattel. Deleting critical files, rendering them unusable and causing significant loss, constitutes a serious enough interference to be considered conversion of the data (as property).
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress requires extreme and outrageous conduct causing severe emotional distress to a person, not damage to property/data.
- C. False imprisonment involves unlawfully confining a person, which is irrelevant here.
- D. Trespass to chattels involves a lesser interference with personal property, typically not rising to the level of demanding full value. The complete deletion causing significant loss goes beyond mere trespass.
Conversion (Torts)
Conversion is an intentional tort involving the exercise of dominion and control over a chattel, which so seriously interferes with the right of another to control it that the actor may justly be required to pay the other the full value of the chattel.
- Requires intent to exercise dominion/control (not necessarily intent to harm).
- Interference must be serious enough to warrant forced purchase (full value).
- Can involve destruction, theft, wrongful transfer, or substantial alteration.
- Differs from trespass to chattels by the degree of interference.
Memory trick: Chattels are touched, Conversion is crushed.