Court Opinion

ID: 9567197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:50:19.068734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:23.030312
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice,
concurring specially. When a contract requires that installment payments are to be made on a specified date in each month at a business-operations office, and the date specified in the contract falls on a Sunday, or a holiday, or a day when business operations are not carried on at the specified paying location, then I am of the opinion that the paying *504party may tender and make payment on the next business-operations day at the specified business location. To my mind, such a rule is just and fair and comports with current business practices in this state.
In 40 AmJur 720, Payment, § 14, we find the following: "Due Date Falling on Sunday or Holiday. — While at common law Sunday was not a dies non, Sunday statutes in most jurisdictions have made it such, to a greater or less extent; even in the absence of such statutes, it seems to be the general rule that where the day for making a payment on a non-negotiable contract falls on Sunday, failure to make it on that day does not subject the promisor to liability as for a default in payment, but he has the following day in which to make it.”
The general rule seems to me to be a reasonable rule to be applied by courts in construing contracts. The phrase “Time is of the essence” included in contracts must be construed along with the requirement that the place of payment is a place where business operations are carried on. And if the date of payment falls on a day of the week when business operations are not carried on at the designated place of payment, then I construe the phrase "Time is of the essence” as meaning that payment or tender may be made at the designated place on the next succeeding day when business operations are carried on at that place.
I concur in the judgment of reversal.