Also known as: vigil · vigils · vigilant · vigilantly · vigilantibus non dormientibus
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Watchfulness consisting of a proper degree of activity and promptness in discovering dangers and guarding against them.
Ashley bypassed safety protocols and became trapped inside a rotating turbine nacelle with his legs exposed. Andrew received repeated automated alerts and live camera feeds on his console but postponed review to avoid an output interruption. Because Andrew failed to exercise the vigilance his monitoring duty required, he did not discover the peril in time to stop the blades before they struck Ashley.
Mr. Chen's cardiac monitor sounded repeatedly in the room assigned to Nurse Lopez. Lopez heard the alarm yet assumed another nurse would respond and never entered the room or summoned help. Lopez's failure to exercise the vigilance her patient-care duty demanded allowed the cardiac arrest to occur without intervention.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Jordan carried a plate and coffee across the marble lobby toward the breakfast buffet at Sage Resorts. Management knew the fountain regularly splashed water onto the smooth tile but refused to install mats or cones for aesthetic reasons. Because the hotel failed to exercise vigilance over the known recurring hazard, Jordan slipped and fractured an ankle before discovering the danger.
Maria relied on her personal banker Lewis's promise to monitor her account weekly and stopped reviewing her own statements while traveling abroad. Lewis never performed the promised checks, allowing a fraudster to make repeated unauthorized withdrawals. Lewis's failure to exercise the vigilance he had undertaken permitted the losses to continue undetected for months.
University administrators reviewed funding applications from student publications and denied support to one religious viewpoint while approving similar secular publications. The reviewing officials did not exercise vigilance to ensure neutral criteria were applied across all applications. The resulting denial exposed the university to liability for unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
A magazine published an article accusing a private attorney of Communist affiliations and other misconduct without contacting the attorney or checking readily available court records. The editors did not exercise vigilance to confirm the factual basis of the charges before publication. The resulting defamation exposed the publisher to liability for harm caused by the unverified statements.
The doctrine allows a contributorily negligent plaintiff to recover when the defendant fails to use a then-existing opportunity to avoid harm. Recovery turns on whether the defendant would have discovered the peril by exercising the vigilance the duty to the plaintiff required. The focus is on the defendant's conduct immediately before the injury rather than the plaintiff's earlier negligence.
Supporting sources
A party must exercise the watchfulness a reasonably prudent person would use under the circumstances to discover apparent dangers. This includes responding to repeated alarms, camera feeds, or known recurring hazards rather than assuming someone else will act. Failure to meet this standard can constitute a breach even when the party is simultaneously managing other operational demands.
Supporting sources
No. Under the last-clear-chance doctrine a plaintiff who negligently created the risk can still recover if unable to avoid the harm by reasonable vigilance immediately before injury and the defendant negligently fails to use an existing opportunity to prevent it. The inquiry examines the moment preceding the harm rather than earlier choices.
Supporting sources
Vigilance requires active monitoring for known recurring conditions that create unreasonable risks to invitees. A possessor who knows water regularly accumulates on a walkway yet takes no protective steps because of aesthetics fails to exercise the vigilance the duty of reasonable care demands. Liability follows when that failure allows an invitee to encounter the danger.
Supporting sources
…While a jury award in any type of civil case may certainly be unpredictable, trial and appellate courts have been increasingly vigilant in ensuring that the jury's result is "based upon a rational consideration of the evidence and the proper application of the law." Reynolds v. Pegler , 123 F. Supp. 36, 39 (SDNY 1954),…