Legal Question in Product Liability in New York
Individual property rights
Are there any legal charges that can be brought against an individual that finds lost property, contacts the owner through another party for them to come pick it up, but the person changes their mind and decides to keep the property they found?
Scenario -
Person A lost their cellphone.
Person B finds it.
Person C, who knows Person A, calls cellphone and speaks to Person B who gives Person C their contact information for Person A to call them to get the cellphone.
Person A calls Person B who tells Person A that they will call them back. Person A never hears from Person B - voicemails are not returned either.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Individual property rights
this should not be in the product liability category, that refers to injuries from defective products.
Your question without the alphabet soup, has a simple answer. If you file a police report, the police may or may not follow up on it, but it is a crime, and you can sue for recovery as well.
The legal term is conversion. The person has converted your property to his own use. It is a tort.