(A) contracts. The doing things in proper time. 2. It may be divided into three degrees, namely: ordinary diligence, extraordinary diligence, and slight diligence. It is the reverse of negligence. Under that article is shown what degree of negligence, or want of diligence, will make a party to a contract responsible to the other. Vide Story, Bailm. Index h. t.; Ayl. Pand. 113 1 Miles, Rep. 40. (B) In Scotland, there are certain forms of law, whereby a creditor endeavors to make good his payment, either by affecting the person of his debtor, or by securing the subjects belonging to him from alienation, or by carrying the property of these subjects to himself. They are either real or personal. 2. Real diligence is that which is proper to heritable or real rights, and of this kind there are two sorts: 1. Inhibitions. 2. Adjudication, which the law has substituted in the place of apprising. 3. Personal diligence is that by which the person of the debtor may be secured, or his personal estate affected.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
Prudence; vigilant activity; attentiveness; or care, of which there are infinite shades, from the slightest momentary thought to the most vigilant anixety; but the law recognizes only three degrees of diligence: (1) Common or ordinary, which men, in general, exert in respect of their own concerns; the standard is necessarily variable with respect to the facts, although it may be uniform with respect to the principle. (2) High or great, which fs extraordinary diligence, or that “which very prudent persons take of their own concerns. (3) Low or slight, which is that which persons of less than common prudence, or indeed of no prudence at all, take of their own concerns.
The civil law is In perfect conformity with the common law. It lays down three degrees of diligence, ordinary (diligentia) extraordinary, (exactissima diligentia;) slight, (levissima diligentia.) Story, Bailm. 19.
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, and these can be clearly enough defined for all practical purposes, and, with a view to the business of life, seem to be all that are really necessary. 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. Ordinary negligence is the want of ordinary diligence; slight, or less than ordinary, negligence is the want of great diligence; and gross or more than ordinary negligence is the want of slight diligence. Railroad Co. v. Rollins, 5 Kan. 180.
Other classifications and compound terms. 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 au? absolute standard, but depending on the relative facts of the special case. Perry v. Cedar Palls, 87 Iowa, 315, 54 N. W. 225; Dillman v. Nadelhoffer, 100 111. 121, 43 N. E. 378; Hendricks v. W. U. Tel. Co., 126 N. C. 304, 35 S. E. 543, 78 Am. St. Rep. 658; Highland Ditch Co. v. Mumford, 5 Colo. 336. 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. Civ. Code Ga, 1805,