Also known as: moebles · moeble goods · movable · chattel · personalty
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Describing property the location of which can be changed, including things growing on, affixed to, or found in land, and documents although the rights represented thereby have no physical location.
Marcus Mitchell takes several fuel tanker trucks from a secured yard belonging to another company. He drives them away intending to keep them permanently. The trucks qualify as moeble property because their location can be changed, so the taking satisfies the elements of theft under the governing rule.
Melissa Mills removes GPS units from the possession of Patriot Freight without consent. The units are moeble property because their location can be changed, triggering liability for dispossession under the applicable tort rule.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Maurice Marshall attempts to assign a license coupled with an interest in portable generators separately from conveying the generators themselves. The generators are moeble property, so the assignment is invalid unless made together with the interest in that property.
Meredith Maxwell transfers title to a fleet of trucks between parties in different states. The trucks are moeble property, so the local law of the state with the most significant relationship governs the transfer rather than the full law including choice-of-law rules.
Michael Miller uses force to stop the unlawful carrying away of portable generators he believes are in his possession. The generators are moeble property, so the use of force is justifiable to prevent their removal under the governing justification rule.
Maya Malik obtains possession of several tractor-trailers from another party by fraud. The tractor-trailers are moeble property, so the acquisition constitutes dispossession under the applicable tort provision.
Moeble property is defined as property whose location can be changed, including items growing on or affixed to land once severed and documents representing rights. Immovable property encompasses all other property that cannot be relocated.
Once severed from the land and reduced to possession as personalty, items that were fixtures become moeble property subject to rules governing theft or dispossession of chattels.
Yes. Because moeble property can be quickly removed or hidden, due process permits pre-hearing seizure when the property is subject to forfeiture, provided post-seizure safeguards are available.
A person commits theft by unlawfully taking or exercising control over moeble property of another with the purpose to deprive the owner, and the property's movability is what places it within the scope of the theft statute.
Force is justifiable to prevent the unlawful carrying away of moeble property when the actor believes the property is in his possession or in the possession of another for whose protection he acts.
…rule of in rem jurisdiction based solely on land in State); § 60, Comment a (same as to jurisdiction based solely on chattel in State); § 68, Comment c (rule of Harris v. Balk "might be thought inconsistent with the basic principle of reasonableness") (1971). [^maj-22]: "All proceedings, like all rights, are…