Trahan v. First National Bank of Ruston
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
690 F.2d 466 (1982)
After Trahan (plaintiff) repaid his loan, the bank (defendant) refused to return his pledged TIPCO stock, wrongly claiming it secured a separate, invalidly pledged loan to an associated company, and later sold the stock at $10/share when that company defaulted; by the time the district court found conversion, the stock traded at $29.50/share (having peaked at $64.25 in 1981), and the court ordered the bank to procure and deliver 15,000 replacement shares -- obtainable through separate pending litigation -- rather than pay the conversion-date value.
Whether unique circumstances in a conversion case may warrant damages in an amount other than the value of the converted goods at the time of conversion.