constructive fraud
- noun
- /kənˈstrʌktɪv frɔd/
- Formal
:
fraude constructivo
- The court ruled that the actions of the accountant constituted constructive fraud because he failed to disclose key information to his clients.
Examples
-
When the builder neglected to inform the homeowners about the faulty materials, it was deemed an instance of constructive fraud.
-
The judge explained that her decision was based on the principle of constructive fraud, as the defendant's lack of transparency had caused significant harm.
-
It's called constructive fraud.
Blog text (13)
Synonyms
Dishonest acts that break a person’s duty or trust under the law
An act a court treats as dishonest by law because of the situation, even without bad intent
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
constructive + fraud
This is a specialized legal term: 'fraud' is familiar as deceptive wrongdoing, but 'constructive' here uses a technical legal sense (meaning ‘treated as if caused or established by law’ or ‘imputed’) rather than the everyday sense. Because the legal meaning of 'constructive' is not the ordinary meaning a B1 learner would know, the overall sense of the phrase cannot be derived from the constituent words, making it unpredictable for learners.
Etymology
Constructive fraud uses constructive in the sense of 'built' and fraud as 'deceit'. Imagine someone who, by what they do or do not say, 'builds' a wrong picture that causes another person to make a bad choice — even if there was no wish to 'deceive', the law treats the result as fraud, so the phrase means being misleading without intent.