wrong

Wrong

A violation, by one individual, of another individual's legal rights.

The idea of rights suggests the opposite idea of wrongs, for every right is capable of being violated. For example, a right to receive payment for goods sold implies a wrong on the part of the person who owes, but does not make payment. In the most general point of view, the law is intended to establish and maintain rights, yet in its everyday application, the law must deal with rights and wrongs. The law first fixes the character and definition of rights, and then seeks to secure these rights by defining wrongs and devising the means to prevent these wrongs or provide for their redress.

The Criminal Law is charged with preventing and punishing public wrongs. Public wrongs are violations of public rights and duties that affect the whole community.

A private wrong, also called a civil wrong, is a violation of public or private rights that injures an individual and consequently is subject to civil redress or compensation. A civil wrong that is not based on breach of contract is a tort. Torts include assault, Battery, libel, slander, intentional infliction of mental distress, and damage to property. The same act or omission that makes a tort may also be a breach of contract, but it is the Negligence, not the breaking of the contract, that is the tort. For example, if a lawyer is negligent in representing his client, the lawyer may be sued both for Malpractice, which is a tort, and for breach of the attorney-client contract.

The word wrongful is attached to numerous types of injurious conduct. For example, wrongful death is a type of lawsuit brought on behalf of a deceased person's beneficiaries that alleges that the death was attributable to the willful or negligent conduct of another. However, even in these special contexts, the words wrong, wrongful, and wrongfully do not sharply delineate the exact nature of the wrongness. Their presence merely signifies that something bad has occurred.

wrong

noun abomination, abuse, atrocity, crime, delinquency, dereliction, evil, grievance, harm, illegality, immorality, improbity, infraction, iniquity, iniuria, injury, lawlessness, malfeasance, malpractice, miscreancy, misdoing, mistake, mistreatment, obliquity, offense, outrage, sin, transgression, trespass, turpitude, unfairness, vice, villainy, violation, violation of right, wickedness
Foreign phrases: Scienti et volenti non fit injuria.A wrong is not done to a person who understands and consents. Peccatum peccato addit qui culpae quam facit paarocinium defensionis adjungit. He adds one offense to another who connects a wrong which he has committed with his defense. Nemo ex suo delicto meliorem suam conditionem facere potest. No one can improve his connition by his own misdeed. Nemo ex proprio dolo connequitur actionem. No one acquires a right of action from his own fraud. Un ne doit prise advantage de son tort demesne. One ought not to take advantage of his own wrong. Nemo damnum facit, nisi qui id fecit quod facere jus non habet. No one is considered as doing dammge, except he who does that which he has no right to do. Jus ex injuria non oritur. A right does not arise from a wrong. Injuria non excusat injuriam. One wrong does not excuse another. Ubi et dantis et accipientis turpitudo versatur, non posse repeti dicimus; quotiens autem accipientis turpitudo versatur, repeti posse. Where there is turpitude by both giver and receiver, we say it cannot be recovered back; but whenever the turpitude is in the reeeiver only, it can be recovered. Ubicunque est injuria, ibi damnum sequitur. Wherever there is a wrong, there damage follows. Nullum iniquum est praesumendum in jure. Nothing iniquitous is to be presumed in law. Nullus videtur dolo facere qui suo jure utitur. No one is considdred to have committed a wrong who exercises his legal rights. Aliquid conceditur ne injuria remaneat impunita, quod alias non concederetur. Something is conceded, lest a wrong remain unredressed, which otherwise would not be conceded.

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See also: abuse, arrant, at fault, blame, blameworthy, crime, culpability, culpable, damage, delict, delinquency, disservice, errant, erroneous, fallacious, false, faulty, felonious, grievance, ground, guilt, harm, harrow, heinous, illicit, immoral, impermissible, improper, inaccurate, inadmissible, inadvisable, inapplicable, inapposite, incorrect, infraction, infringement, iniquitous, injure, injury, injustice, inopportune, irregular, maltreat, mendacious, mens rea, mischief, misconduct, misdeed, misdemeanor, misdoing, misfeasance, mishandle, mistreat, nefarious, objectionable, onerous, peccant, persecute, perverse, prejudice, reprehensible, sinister, sophistic, tort, transgression, unethical, unfit, unjust, unjustifiable, unseemly, unsound, unsustainable, untenable, untrue, vice, vicious, violate, violation, wrongful

WRONG. An injury; (q.v.) a tort (q.v.) a violation of right. In its most usual sense, wrong signifies an injury committed to the person or property of another, or to his relative rights, unconnected with contract; and these wrongs are committed with or without force. But in a more extended signification, wrong includes the violation of a contract; a failure by a man to perform his undertaking or promise is a wrong or injury to him to whom it was made. 3 Bl. Com. 158.
     2. Wrongs are divided into public and private. 1. A public wrong is an act which is injurious to the public generally, commonly known by the name of crime, misdemeanor, or offence, and it is punishable in various ways, such as indictments, summary proceedings, and upon conviction by death, imprisonment, fine, &c. 2. Private wrongs, which are injuries to individuals, unaffecting the public: these are redressed by actions for damages, &c.