Misfeasance in public office is a cause of action in the civil courts of England and Wales and certain Commonwealth countries.
[1] The tort can be traced back to 1703 when Chief Justice Sir John Holt decided that a landowner could sue a police constable who deprived him of his right to vote (Ashby v White).
[2] The tort was revived in 1985 when it was used so that French turkey producers could sue the Ministry of Agriculture over a dispute that harmed their sales.
One known as "targeted malice" occurs when a public officer intentionally abuses their position with the motive of inflicting damage upon the claimant.
[2] If misfeasance in public office did not tenuously exist as an historical survival, it is doubtful whether anyone would invent it, at least in the form of a tort.In July 2005, 49,500 private shareholders of Britain's national railway infrastructure company Railtrack sued the Secretary of State for Transport for damages, alleging that in October 2001 the then holder of that office, Stephen Byers MP, had acted unlawfully in planning to put their company into administration on the grounds that it was insolvent.