breach of duty
1
6.5
- noun
- /briːtʃ əv ˈdjuːti/
- Formal
:
incumplimiento del deber
- The lawyer's unethical actions were a clear breach of duty to her clients.
Examples
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In order to be convicted of malpractice, a jury of average Americans (who do not always read research evidence) must decide if a situation has met four conditions: duty, breach of duty, harm, and causation.
Blog text (9) -
Courts at several levels have addressed in some manner the elements of negligence, either nonfeasance or misfeasance, as they rationalized their decisions: duty of care; breach of duty; injury (damage); and proximate cause.
Academic text (1991) -
Society is in breach of duty to youth.
Blog text (25) -
A breach of duty generally would result from a conflict in the fiduciary responsibilities between offices.
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The client must show not only injury from a lawyer's breach of duty, but that the result of the underlying case would have been different if not for the lawyer's breach.
Academic text (1998) -
The elements that must be met for a malpractice case to proceed are duty, breach of duty, proximate cause, and damages.
Academic text (2007) -
And while intent is not an element of negligence, it still involves a breach of duty, a duty that DOJ attorneys have to the government.
Academic text (2018) -
Intuitively, given the landlord's breach of duty, the promise of full compensation for tenants creates a moral hazard problem that results in underinvestment in precaution.
Academic text (1995) -
"Acts are only a subject of moral reprobation when they involve a breach of duty to others, but not if they are merely evidence of folly, or want of personal dignity and self-respect."
Academic text (1993) -
The couple sued in 2011, alleging trespass, nuisance, and breach of duty after they said 1,300 balls landed on their lawn during one season, reports the Ravalli Republic.
Blog text (1)
Synonyms
80
6.5
Failure to take proper care that causes harm or loss
16
8.4
Not doing a duty you must do
4
6.7
To break the trust someone gives you by acting dishonestly or failing a duty
1
5.1
Not doing important tasks you must do at work
Antonyms
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the failure to fulfill a legal or moral obligation' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'breach' (failure to observe an agreement/obligation) with 'of duty' (the responsibility one must perform). This straightforward noun + of + noun composition is literal and common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The legal phrase breach of duty comes from a simple picture: breach means a gap or break and duty means a job or responsibility. So, if someone leaves a gap in their duty and harm gets through, it means 'failing to do what you should' and can lead to legal trouble.