misrepresentation
    n 1: a misleading falsehood [syn: misrepresentation, deceit,
         deception]
    2: a willful perversion of facts [syn: falsification,
       misrepresentation]

Misrepresentation \Mis*rep`re*sen*ta"tion\, n.
   Untrue representation; false or incorrect statement or
   account; -- usually unfavorable to the thing represented; as,
   a misrepresentation of a person's motives. --Sydney Smith.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: In popular use, this word often conveys the idea of
         intentional untruth.
         [1913 Webster]

MISREPRESENTATION, contracts. The statement made by a party to a contract, 
that a thing relating to it is in fact in a particular way, when he knows it 
is not so. 
     2. The misrepresentation must be both false and fraudulent, in order to 
make the party making it, responsible to the other for damages. 3 Com. R. 
413; 10 Mass. R. 197; 1 Rep. Const. Court, 328, 475, Yelv. 21 a, note l; 
Peake's Cas. 115; 3 Campb. 154; Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 10, s. 1. And see 
Representation. It is not every misrepresentation which will make a party 
liable; when a mere misstatement of a fact has been erroneously made, 
without fraud, in a casual, improvident communication, respecting a matter 
which the person to whom the communication was made, and who had an interest 
in it, should not have taken upon trust, but is bound to inquire himself, 
and had the means of ascertaining the truth, there would be no 
responsibility; 5 Maule & Selw. 380; 1 Chit. Pr. 836; 1 Sim. R. 13, 63; and 
when the informant was under no legal pledge or obligation as to the precise 
accuracy and correctness of his statement, the other party can maintain no 
action for the consequences of that statement, upon which it was his 
indiscretion to place reliance. 12 East, 638; see also, 2 Cox, R. 134; 13 
Ves. 133; 3 Bos. & Pull. 370; 2 East, 103; 3 T. R, 56, 61; 3 Bulstr. 93; 6 
Ves. 183; 3 Ves. & Bea. 110; 4 Dall. R. 250. Vide Concealment; 
Representation; Suggestio falsi; Suppressio veri.