...and, therefore, void and he offered the company the amount due it and kept only what he was entitled to retain under the previous contract.
This claim of right, if bona fide, though...without concealment, and under a bona fide claim of right, the conversion is not embezzlement, however unfounded the claim may be. The mere absence of concealment and secrecy, however, is no...defense, if there is a fraudulent intent, and no claim of right."
To like effect see 18 Am. Jur. p. 586, § 27.
The question is not whether the assignment was under duress, rendering it void, but whether defendant, in good faith, even though mistaken in point of law, retained the money under assertion of bona fide claim...