diligence

Vigilant activity; attentiveness; or care, of which there are infinite shades, from the slightest momentary thought to the most vigilant anxiety. Attentive and persistent in doing a thing; steadily applied; active; sedulous; laborious; unremitting; untiring. National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. v. U. S., 190 Ct.Cl. 247, 419 F.2d 863, 875.

The attention and care required of a person in a given situation and is the opposite of negligence. Turnquist v. Kjelbak, N.D., 77 N.W.2d 854, 861.

The civil law is in perfect conformity with the common law.

It lays down three degrees of diligence,-ordinary diligence (diligentia); extraordinary diligence (exactissima diligentia); slight diligence(levissima diligentia).

There may be a high degree of diligence, a common degree of diligence, and a slight degree of diligence, with their corresponding degrees of negligence.

Common or ordinary diligence is that degree of diligence which men in general exercise in respect to their own concerns; high or great diligence is of course extraordinary diligence, or that which very prudent persons take of their own concerns; and low or slight diligence is that which persons of less than common prudence, or indeed of any prudence at all, take of their own concerns.

See also care

@ due diligence

Such a measure of prudence, activity, or assiduity, as is properly to be expected from, and ordinarily exercised by, a reasonable and prudent man under the particular circumstances; not measured by any absolute standard, but depending on the relative facts of the special case.

@ extraordinary diligence

That extreme measure of care and caution which persons of unusual prudence and circumspection use for securing and preserving their own property or rights.

@ great diligence

Such a measure of care, prudence, and assiduity as persons of unusual prudence and discretion exercise in regard to any and all of their own affairs, or such as persons of ordinary prudence exercise in regard to very important affairs of their own.

@ high diligence

The same as great diligence.

@ low diligence

The same as slight diligence.

@ necessary diligence

That degree of diligence which a person placed in a particular situation must exercise in order to entitle him to the protection of the law in respect to rights or claims growing out of that situation, or to avoid being left without redress on account of his own culpable carelessness or negligence.

@ ordinary diligence

ordinary diligence is that degree of care which men of common prudence generally exercise in their affairs, in the country and the age in which they live.

@ reasonable diligence

A fair, proper and due degree of care and activity, measured with reference to the particular circumstances; such diligence, care, or attention as might be expected from a man of ordinary prudence and activity.

@ special diligence

The measure of diligence and skill exercised by a good business man in his particular specialty, which must be commensurate with the duty to be performed and the individual circumstances of the case; not merely the diligence of an ordinary person or non-specialist

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