General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Stock

Replevin “is a possessory action, the gist of which is the right of possession in the plaintiff and the wrongful seizure and detention by defendants.” Commercial Inv. Trust v. Wm. Frankfurth H. Co. 179 Wis. 21, 26, 190 N. W. 1004. A defendant in replevin may defeat recovery by proof that the right to possession is in a third person, not a party to the action. Stern v. Riches, 111 Wis. 589, 591, 87 N. W. 554.

*226A well established exception to this general rule is that a defendant cannot defeat recovery in a replevin action by delivering possession of the property to a third person in fraud of the…