misfeasance

misfeasance
    n 1: doing a proper act in a wrongful or injurious manner
    

Misfeasance \Mis*fea"sance\, n. [OF. pref. mes- wrong (L. minus
   less) + faisance doing, fr. faire to do, L. facere. Cf.
   {Malfeasance}.] (Law)
   A trespass; a wrong arising from an overt act; the improper
   doing of an act which a person might lawfully do. --Bouvier.
   --Wharton.
   [1913 Webster]
    

MISFEASANCE, torts, contracts. The performance of an act which might 
lawfully be done, in an improper manner, by which another person receives an 
injury. It differs from malfeasance, (q.v.) or, nonfeasance (q.v.) Vide, 
generally, 2 Vin. Ab. 35; 2 Kent, Com. 443; Doct. Pl. 62; Story, Bail. Sec. 
9. 
     2. It seems to be settled that there is a distinction between 
misfeasance and nonfeasance in the case of mandates. In cases of 
nonfeasance, the mandatary is not generally liable, because his undertaking 
being gratuitous, there is no consideration to support it; but in cases of 
misfeasance, the common law gives a remedy for the injury done, and to the 
extent of that injury. 5 T. R. 143; 4 John. Rep. 84; Story, Bailment, Sec. 
165; 2 Ld. Raym. 909, 919, 920; 2 Johns. Cas. 92; Doct. & Stu. 210; 1 Esp. 
R. 74; 1 Russ. Cr. 140; Bouv. Inst. Index h.t. 
    

135 Moby Thesaurus words for "misfeasance":
      aberrancy, aberration, abuse, abuse of office, atrocity,
      bad policy, befoulment, breach, conversion, corrupt administration,
      crime, crime against humanity, criminal tendency, criminality,
      criminosis, deadly sin, debasement, defalcation, defectiveness,
      defilement, delinquency, delusion, dereliction, desecration,
      deviancy, distortion, diversion, embezzlement, enormity, errancy,
      erroneousness, error, evil, evil courses, evildoing, failure,
      fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, falsity, fault, faultiness,
      feloniousness, felony, flaw, flawedness, fouling, genocide,
      guilty act, hamartia, heavy sin, heresy, heterodoxy, illusion,
      impolicy, impropriety, indiscretion, inexpedience, inexpediency,
      inexpiable sin, iniquity, injury, injustice, lapse, lawbreaking,
      maladministration, malefaction, malfeasance, malpractice, malum,
      malversation, minor wrong, misadministration, misapplication,
      misappropriation, misconduct, misconstruction, misdeed,
      misdemeanor, misdirection, misdoing, misemployment, misgovernment,
      misguidance, mishandling, misinterpretation, misjudgment,
      mismanagement, misprision, misprision of treason, misrule,
      misusage, misuse, mortal sin, neglect, negligence, nonfeasance,
      offense, omission, outrage, peccadillo, peccancy, peculation,
      perversion, pilfering, pollution, poor stewardship,
      positive misprision, profanation, prostitution, self-contradiction,
      sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful act, sinfulness,
      slip, thou scarlet sin, tort, transgression, trespass, trip,
      unorthodoxy, untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness, unutterable sin,
      venial sin, vice, viciousness, violation, wrong, wrong conduct,
      wrongdoing, wrongness