0 a failure to do something when there is a legal duty to do so, especially by a person in authority: --
That is the doctrine of nonfeasance.
The essence of nonfeasance is that no action will lie for damage suffered because of a highway authority's omission to perform its statutory duty to keep a highway in repair.
The mere omission to maintain a highway, initially safe, so as to prevent deterioration, on the other hand, would be nonfeasance, and would expose the authority to no such claim.
If it were a function of the appropriate authority in its capacity as a highway authority, then the doctrine of nonfeasance would protect it from an action for damages.
We think that that has the effect of excluding the applicability of the doctrine of nonfeasance in this case.
So for another 100 years we have suffered under the rule that a highway authority is not liable for nonfeasance.
As one may imagine, in time a detailed and complex case law has arisen distinguishing between examples of misfeasance and examples of nonfeasance.
No defence of nonfeasance exists there and no harmful consequences have resulted.
