Lamine v. Dorrell

J.S. died intestate holding certain debentures; the defendant falsely pretended to be someone else in order to obtain administration powers over J.S.'s estate, which let him take possession of and sell the debentures. His administration powers were later revoked and granted instead to the plaintiff, who then sued the defendant to recover the money he'd received from selling the debentures. The defendant argued that because he held an administrator's interest in the debentures at the time of the sale, assumpsit (a contract-based claim) was the wrong form of action to bring against him.