Wisconsin Statutes
Wis. Stat. § 893.35 (2026)
Action to recover personal property
✓ current as of July 2026
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893.35893.35 Action to recover personal property. An action to recover personal property shall be commenced within 6 years after the cause of action accrues or be barred. The cause of action accrues at the time the wrongful taking or conversion occurs, or the wrongful detention begins. An action for damage for wrongful taking, conversion or detention of personal property shall be commenced within the time limited by s. 893.51.
893.35 NoteJudicial Council Committee’s Note, 1979: This section is based on previous s. 893.19 (6), without change in substance, but with some expansion of language to make clear that accrual of the cause of action is not delayed until the person bringing the action learns of the wrongful taking or detention. The limitation with respect to an action for damages is contained in s. 893.51. [Bill 326-A]
893.35 AnnotationA wrongful detention claim is separate from a conversion claim. A wrongful detention claim may arise against a possessor of previously converted or wrongfully taken property. Under those facts, a wrongful detention claim is available and, for purposes of this section and s. 893.51 (1), accrues at the time the property is obtained. No demand is necessary. Mueller v. TL90108, LLC, 2020 WI 7, 390 Wis. 2d 34, 938 N.W.2d 566, 17-1962.
893.35 AnnotationThis section and s. 893.51 (1) are statutes of repose, not statutes of limitation. A statute of repose provides that a cause of action must be commenced within a specified amount of time after the defendant’s action that allegedly led to injury, regardless of whether the plaintiff has discovered the injury or wrongdoing. With regard to a wrongful detention claim, the statutes focus on when the wrongful detention begins, not when the property owner discovers or knows of the detention. Mueller v. TL90108, LLC, 2020 WI 7, 390 Wis. 2d 34, 938 N.W.2d 566, 17-1962.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 39
cases (27 in the last 5 years), 1966–2026 · leading case: Richard A. Mueller v. TL90108, LLC, 2020 WI 7 (Wis. 2020).
Richard A. Mueller v. TL90108, LLC, 2020 WI 7 (Wis. 2020). “Wis. Stat. §§ 893.35 , 893.51(1) (2017-18).”
Johnson v. Cnty. of Crawford, 536 N.W.2d 167 (Wis. Ct. App. 1995). “The Seventh Circuit noted that this conclusion was supported by the district court's interpretation of § 893.”
Mueller v. TL90108, LLC, 917 N.W.2d 551 (Wis. Ct. App. 2018). “§ 893.35 (2015-16), 1 which states that the cause of action accrues "at the time the wrongful taking or conversion occurs, or the wrongful detention begins[,]" the cause of action accrued when the car was converted by the unknown thief in 2001, and the six-year time limitation…”
Greeno v. Litscher, 13 F. App'x 370 (7th Cir. 2001). “See Wis. Stat. §§ 893.35 and 893.51. If a deprivation of property did not occur as the result of some established state procedure (which Greeno does not so allege) and state law provides an adequate post-deprivation remedy for redressing the missing property, due process has…”
Johnson v. Wallich, 578 F. App'x 601 (7th Cir. 2014). “Wis. Stat. §§ 893.35 (action to recover personal property after wrongful taking, conversion, or wrongful detention), 893.”
Chesemore v. All. Holdings, Inc., 284 F.R.D. 416 (W.D. Wis. 2012). “See Wis. Stat. § 893.35 (action to recover personal property); Wis.”
Pattermann v. City of Whitewater, 145 N.W.2d 705 (Wis. 1966). “While sec. 893.35, Stats., speaks in terms of a reversal, we interpret it as also encompassing modification of a judgment of the nature herein directed.”
Sambs v. Nowak, 177 N.W.2d 144 (Wis. 1970). “Although the statute of limitations has now run on the plaintiff’s original cause of action, 20 sec. 893.35, Stats., invokes an exception to the barring of plaintiff’s cause of action on that account and authorizes the plaintiff to commence an action within one year from the…”
Kathy Schwab v. Paul Schwab, 2021 WI 67 (Wis. 2021). “" For example, under a different statute of repose, Wis. Stat. § 893.35 , a plaintiff is barred from bringing a claim for replevin after six years from when the conversion occurs, even if the plaintiff learned of the conversion ten years later.”
Colby v. Columbia Cnty., 531 N.W.2d 404 (Wis. Ct. App. 1995). “Its immediate predecessor, § 893.35, STATS., dealt only with appeals: If an action shall be commenced within the time prescribed therefor and a judgment therein for the plaintiff, or the defendant, be reversed on appeal, the plaintiff, or if he dies and the cause of action…”
Kimmons v. Waupun Prop. Staff, 1 F. App'x 496 (7th Cir. 2001). “10(4) and state law tort claims); see also Wis. Stat. §§ 893.35 , 893.51, & 893.52 (state-law tort remedies available in Wisconsin).”
Broadbent v. Hegge, 172 N.W.2d 34 (Wis. 1969). “The request of the plaintiff-respondent that sec. 893.35, Stats., applying to judgments that are reversed on appeal be invoked here, must be denied for the reason that the statutory definition of a judgment is “.”
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