Also known as: willfully · willfulness · wilful · intentional
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conduct that is voluntary and intentional. It requires a purposeful act or omission undertaken with awareness of its character, though it need not involve malice or an evil motive.
Wren Wallace owns the dominant estate and stops using the access road across Walter Washington's servient land after building a new driveway on her own property. She removes the gate and posts a sign directing all traffic away from the old path. Washington treats the road as closed and plants trees across it. The easement is extinguished because Wallace's actions show intentional relinquishment of the authorized use.
Winona Walsh operates a factory that repeatedly directs loud machinery noise and chemical odors onto Wendy Wu's adjacent residential lot. Walsh knows the emissions cross the boundary yet continues the operations to cut costs. Wu suffers significant interference with the use and enjoyment of her home. Walsh's conduct qualifies as intentional and unreasonable, supporting nuisance liability.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
William Williams, a California resident, posts defamatory statements online expressly targeting Winston Ward, a known New York resident, and sends copies directly to Ward's New York employer. Williams knows the statements will cause reputational harm in New York. Ward sues in New York federal court. Williams's intentional tort expressly aimed at New York supports personal jurisdiction there under the effects test.
Walker Valley Produce is a member-managed LLC. Member Winslow Aviation diverts company funds to a competing venture it secretly controls, knowing the transfer violates the operating agreement. The diversion is not the product of mere negligence. Because the conduct constitutes willful or intentional misconduct, the member breaches the statutory duty of care.
Walter Washington returns home to find his spouse in the act of adultery with another person. In the immediate heat of passion and before any reasonable cooling-off period, Washington intentionally stabs the other person, causing death. The killing would otherwise be murder, but the adequate provocation reduces the offense to voluntary manslaughter.
Winston Ward, a beneficiary under his aunt's will, poisons her without legal excuse or justification, causing her death. The killing is felonious and intentional. Ward is therefore a slayer and is denied any right to benefit from the will or other donative transfers from the decedent.
No. Willful conduct requires only that the act be voluntary and intentional. Malice or an evil purpose is not necessary for the term to apply.
Willful conduct involves purposeful action or omission undertaken with awareness of its character. Negligent conduct involves failure to exercise reasonable care without that purposeful awareness. Statutes governing LLC and partnership duties of care expressly separate willful or intentional misconduct from gross negligence or recklessness.
Voluntary manslaughter requires an intentional killing that would otherwise be murder but occurs in the heat of passion after adequate provocation and before a reasonable cooling-off period. The intentional quality of the act supplies the willfulness element while the provocation negates malice aforethought.
Yes. The rule denies inheritance rights only to a person responsible for the felonious and intentional killing of the decedent without legal excuse or justification. A merely negligent or accidental killing does not trigger the bar.
…5, c. 34, came into being. Its emphasis was upon the destruction of "the life of a child capable of being born alive." It made a willful act performed with the necessary intent a felony. It contained a proviso that one was not to be found guilty of the offense "unless it is proved that the act which caused the death of the…