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MISFEASANCE Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

A misdeed or trespass. The doing what a party ought to do improperly. 1 Tidd, Pr. 4. The improper performance of some act which a man may lawfully do. 3 Steph. Comm. 400. And see Bell v. Josselyn, 3 Gray (Mass.) 309, 03 Am. Dec. 741; Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Foulks, 191 111. 57, 00 N. E. 890; Dudley v. Flemingsburg, 115 Ky. 5, 72 S. W. 327, 00 L R. A. 575, 103 Am. St. Rep. 253. Misfeasance, strictly, is not doing a lawful act in a proper manner, omitting to do it as it should be done; while malfeasance is the doing an act wholly wrongful; and non- feasance is an omission to perform a duty, or a total neglect of duty. But “misfeasance is often carelessly used in the sense of “malfeasance.” Coite v. Lynes, 33 Conn. 109.

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