Feasance and Misdeeds by Public Authorities: A Comparative Tortious Review with a Spotlight on Cape Breton Island’s Sustainability & Fiscal Neglect

Feasance is a developing area of the law of torts. Torts is an area of law that deals with private wrongs. In essence, breaches of duties or obligations by a person or legal party that causes injury to another. It also has the distinction as being the only element of tort law applicable to the actions of public officials versus all other torts which are private wrongs causing injury. In Civil law systems such as Quebec along with much of Europe and South America this area or tortious wrongs is covered in an area of law known as delict, which similarly focuses on the obligations of people (or legal entities) to others and the possible remedy when obligations are breached, and significant damages result. In this study I will explore the origins and early development of feasance in both civil law and common law and will also examine how the law distinguishes between the three types of tortious feasance: malfeasance, mis-feasance and nonfeasance. Finally, using the claims of the Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF) that Halifax has been unduly hording constitutionally directed federal equalization transfers to the Province of Nova Scotia from the outer laying regions of the province, a spotlight will be shown on Cape Breton Island’s (CBI) demise and fiscal neglect to gauge whether NSEF might potentially have a substantiated claim of tortious action via litigation for damages incurred due to one or more of the feasance heads.