Misfeasance
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
The performance of a lawful act in an improper manner; a wrong done incidentally to the exercise of a right, or the performance of a duty. The word is sometimes used in the general sense of any active wrong. Misfeasance is the improper performance of some act which might lawfully be done.
Wright V. Spencer, 1 Stew. 576.
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 nonfear sance is an omission to perform a duty, or a total neglect of duty. But " misfeasance " is often carelessly used in the sense of "malfeasance."
Goite v. Lynes, 33 Conn. 109.