Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 354.03
As used in these rules, "legal holiday" means New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Washington's and Lincoln's Birthday (Presidents' Day), Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and any other day designated as a holiday by the President or Congress of the United States, by the State, or by a county, and with respect to service or filing by U.S. Mail, a day that the United States Mail does not operate.
Minn. Gen. R. Prac. 354.03
Advisory Committee Comment - 2008 Amendment
In 2006 the Minnesota Supreme Court addressed the ambiguity in the rules and the ambiguity between the rules and statutes over how Columbus Day should be treated. Columbus Day is only optionally a state holiday (by statute the different branches can elect to treat it as a holiday) but is uniformly a federal and U.S. Mail holiday. Because the rules generally allow service by mail, the Court in Commandeur LLC v. Howard Hartry, Inc., 724 N.W.2d 508 (Minn. 2006), ruled that where the last day of a time period occurred on Columbus Day, service by mail permitted by the rules was timely if mailed on the following day on which mail service was available. The amendment to Rule 354.03 makes it clear that Columbus Day is a "legal holiday" for all purposes in these rules, even if that is not necessarily so by the statutory definition. Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5 (2008). '
Advisory Committee Comment
State-Level Judicial-Branch Holidays. The legal holidays listed in Rule 354.03 are based upon Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5 (2000), which defines state-level judicial-branch holidays. The statute further provides that when New Year's Day (January 1), Independence Day (July 4), Veteran's Day (November 11), or Christmas Day (December 25) falls on a Sunday, the following day (Monday) shall be a holiday, and that when New Year's Day, Independence Day, Veteran's Day, or Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, the preceding day (Friday) shall be a holiday. Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5, also authorizes the judicial branch to designate certain other days as holidays. The Judicial Branch Personnel Plan designates the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday.
County Holidays. Counties are authorized to close county offices on certain days under Minn. Stat. § 373.052(2000). Thus, if a county closes its offices under Minn. Stat. § 373.052 on a day that is not a state-level judicial-branch holiday, such as Christopher Columbus Day (the second Monday in October), the court in that county would nevertheless include that day as a holiday for the purpose of computing time under Rule 354.03. See Mittelstadt v. Breider, 286 Minn. 211, 212, 175 N.W.2d 191, 192 (1970) (applying Minn. Stat. § 373.052 to filing of notice of election contest with district court). If a county does not close its offices on a day that is a state-level judicial-branch holiday, such as the Friday after Thanksgiving, the court in that county must still include that day as a holiday for the purpose of computing time under Rule 354.03.
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