Willful Default Law and Legal Definition
Willful default is a conscious abstention by an obligor from doing that which reasonably and under the terms of the obligation he should have done. The words "willful default" imply more than negligence or carelessness. The word willful means intentional and the word default means transgression.
Willful default, as the term is used in a trust instrument means more than involuntary, inadvertent, negligent, mistaken, careless, or accidental default. It means an intentional designing failure to do or not to do something required, an affirmative wrong. Willful default means intentionally making away with the trust property and a willful neglect means such reckless indifference to true interests of the trust as to amount to or partake of a willful violation of duty. [Thompson v. Hays, 11 F.2d 244 (8th Cir. Mo. 1926)].
