Definition
A feasor is a doer or maker — a person who performs an act or carries out a deed. The term appears almost exclusively in legal compounds rather than standing alone. Its primary surviving use is in the compound term tortfeasor (also spelled tort-feasor), designating a person who commits a tort. In older sources, the term also appears in the phrase feasors del estatute, meaning the makers of a statute.
The word functions less as an independent legal term and more as a suffix-building block embedded in several standard legal compounds. Researchers will most often encounter it as part of tortfeasor, but historical sources also record it in misfeasor (one who commits a misfeasance) and the now-archaic feasors del estatute.
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Common Confusion
Feasor should not be confused with the related action-nouns misfeasance, nonfeasance, and malfeasance, which name categories of wrongful conduct rather than the actor. The feasor suffix identifies the person; the -feasance suffix identifies the act. Researchers navigating older English reports may encounter feasor used loosely where modern practice would use the more specific compound tortfeasor.
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Why It Matters in Research
The standalone term feasor is largely vestigial in modern legal writing. Researchers will almost never encounter it alone in contemporary materials. Its research value lies in three areas.
First, historical English and Anglo-Norman materials, including Year Books and early Chancery records, use feasor and its compounds in ways that do not map cleanly onto modern tort vocabulary. The phrase feasors del estatute, for instance, refers to parliamentary drafters, not wrongdoers — a usage that could mislead researchers scanning older digests without context.
Second, the tortfeasor compound, derived directly from this root, remains a live and heavily litigated term, particularly in joint-and-several liability, contribution, and indemnification disputes. Understanding the root clarifies that tortfeasor simply means "tort-doer" — a neutral descriptor of agency rather than a term of moral condemnation.
Third, Burrill's entry conflates feasor with a separate sense — the feudal concept of what one holds of another by service (quod quis tenet ab alio) — that is almost certainly an editorial error or textual corruption in the original source. Researchers relying on Burrill for this term should treat that passage with caution; it does not appear in Black's and does not correspond to standard usage.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in near-total agreement on the core definition: feasor means doer or maker, derived from the Anglo-Norman faire. All three cite the same authority — Dyer 3b — for the phrase feasors del estatute. Black's First and Second Editions are essentially identical on this point. The Second Edition adds the explicit note connecting feasor to tortfeasor, reflecting the term's gradual narrowing toward that compound as its primary surviving context.
Burrill's entry is the most expansive and the most problematic. After the standard definition, Burrill includes a passage — "that which one holds of another by service" — that appears to conflate feasor with fee or fief. This is likely a transcription or pagination artifact from the original source material rather than a genuine alternative legal meaning. No comparable definition appears in Black's or in standard feudal law references. Researchers should not rely on this passage as authority for a distinct meaning of feasor.
None of the historical dictionaries provide substantive treatment of the compounds misfeasor or malfeasor, which are better addressed under their own headings.
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Jurisdictional Note
Feasor as a standalone term carries no significant jurisdictional variation. Tortfeasor, its primary surviving compound, is used across all common law jurisdictions, though the rules governing joint tortfeasors — particularly contribution and indemnification rights — vary considerably by statute and case law from state to state.
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