trover in which only damages could be recovered. Restoration of the property is, of course, only provisional, pending determination of title." It depended upon an original unlawful taking by the way of distraint. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the action of trover largely replaced trespass for wrongful distress. Replevin and trover never completely coincided, because there was a limitation on replevin. Replevin remains the modern action, albeit defined by statute, for recovery of chattels pending a decision of the right of possession. It lies only where the possession was taken from the plaintiff, whether under colour of legal process or otherwise, by an act having the nature of a trespass. Canadian cases distinguishing replevin from detinue Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corp. v Heaman, a 1990 Canadian case, the Manitoba Court of Appeal adopted the words of the 1875 Manitoba Administration of Justice Act as having "codified, but not changed, at least in substance the action of replevin" by saying, In the 1899 case McGregor v McGregor, British Columbia Supreme Court justice Irving wrote: Medieval detinue Detinue was an old form of action which slowly branched off from the action of debt. The action lay for the unlawful detention of ascertained chattels at the instance of a person who was entitled to have possession. The writ was a command to the defendant that he should deliver up to the plaintiff the chattels quae ei injuste detinet – "which he unlawfully withholds from him". The gist of the action was the unlawful detention by the defendant. An example is seen when a borrower might be sued for unlawfully refusing to return a borrowed article. Ames regarded the action of detinue as essentially an action based upon contract, having its foundation in bailment. Ames' point is that the action was a means of enforcing an agreement which was recognized by the law. This argument represents the realization of a theory of contract in detinue. Detinue also replaced the more ancient action of res adiratae. According to Bracton the plaintiff could drop the words felony and merely claim that his chattels were in the possession of the defendant. Holdsworth is of the opinion that the gist of this action was unlawful detention. Holdsworth bases this on a case from Bracton's notebook in which the plaintiff alleges that "William Nutach in the peace of God and of our Lord the King and of his bailiffs