n. 1) any act which is in violation of the duties or a trustee or of the terms of a trust. Such a breach need not be intentional or with malice, but can be due to negligence. 2) breaking a promise or confidence. (See: breach)
BREACH OF TRUST. The willful misappropriation, by a trustee, of a thing which
had been lawfully delivered to him in confidence.
2. The distinction between larceny and a breach of trust is to be found
chiefly in the terms or way in which the thing was taken originally into the
party's possession; and the rule seems to be, that whenever the article is
obtained upon a fair contract, not for a mere temporary purpose, or by one
who is in the. employment of the deliverer, then the subsequent
misappropriation is to be considered as an act of breach of trust. This rule
is, however, subject to many nice distinctions. 15 S. & R. 93, 97. It has
been adjudged that when the owner of goods parts with the possession for a
particular purpose, and the person who receives them avowedly for that
purpose, has at the time a fraudulent intention to make use of the
possession as the weans of converting the goods to his own use, and does so
convert them, it is larceny; but if the owner part with the property,
although fraudulent means have been used to obtain it, the, act of
conversion is not larceny. Id. Alis. Princ. c. 12, p. 354.
3. In the Year Book, 21 H. VII. 14, the distinction is thus stated:
Pigot. If I deliver a jewel or money to my servant to keep, and he flees or
goes from me with the jewel, is it felony ? Cutler said, Yes : for so long
as he is with me or in my house, that which I have delivered to him is
adjudged to be in my possession; as my butler, who has my plate in keeping,
if he flees with it, it is felony. Same law; if he who keeps my horse goes
away with, him: The reason is, they are always in my possession. But if I
deliver a horse to my servant to ride to market or the fair and he flee with
him, it is no felony; for e comes lawfully to the possession of the horse by
delivery. And so it is, if I give him a jewel to carry to London, or to pay
one, or to buy a thing, and he flee with it, it is not felony : for it is
out of my possession, and he comes lawfully to it. Pigot. It can well be:
for the master in these cases has an action against him, viz., Detinue, or
Account. See this point fully discussed in Stamf. P. C. lib. 1; Larceny, c.
15, p. 25. Also, 13 Ed. IV. fo. 9; 52 H. III. 7; 21 H. VII. 15.