misapply

Etymology

mis- + apply

verb

1. To apply incorrectly; to misuse.
   It may be that the jury in this case have misapplied the rule laid down by this Court, but not in favour of the defendants. I cannot help thinking they might well have held the watercourse to be the true boundary line between the two properties. 1913, Sir Frederick Pollock, Robert Campbell, Oliver Augustus Saunders, The Revised Reports