Court Opinion

ID: 9776071
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:18:12.153515+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:33.957023
License: Public Domain

COVINGTON, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that November 29,1996, was a “legal holiday” within the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit of the City of St. Louis, under Rule 44.01(a). For the purposes of assuring certainty and predictability for the practicing bar and for the trial and appellate benches, I advocate a definition of “legal holiday” that would apply in all courts at all times. As it is used in Rule 44.01(a), the term “legal holiday” should be defined as a day specifically designated as a public holiday by proper legislative enactment such as section 9.010, RSMo 1994.1
There is sufficient legal authority, in Missouri and elsewhere, to support a rule that prefers certainty over uncertainty. As the majority acknowledges, in Bowling v. Webb Gas Co., Inc. of Lebanon, 505 S.W.2d 39, 40 (Mo.1974), this Court, while addressing a statute of limitations issue, made reference to section 9.010, in referring to Washington’s birthday as a legal holiday. The Bowling Court’s reference was in accord with generally accepted definitions of “legal holiday,” a day designated specifically by the legislative body as a holiday. Black’s Law Dictionary 894 (6th ed.1990), for example, defines “legal holiday” as “[a] day designated by law as exempt from judicial proceedings, service of process, demand and protest of commercial paper, etc. A day designated by legislative enactment for purpose within meaning of term ‘holiday.’ ” Similarly, C.J.S. defines “legal holiday” as “a day designated and set apart by legislative enactment for [holiday] purposes.” 40 C.J.S., Holidays, § 2, at 158 (1991). With all this said, however, it is without cavil that this Court is authorized to interpret its own rules, in this case Rule 44. My disagreement lies in the fact that the majority’s holding implies that the definition of “legal holiday” will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
The burden of unpredictability arising from a practice that disallows certainty in determining what is or is not a “legal holiday” falls upon the lawyer. The problems of unpredictability and uncertainty are compounded in circumstances such as those in the present case where the presiding judge’s memorandum to the circuit provided that “the Courts of the 22 nd Judicial Circuit will not be open except as may be necessary to conduct certain business of the Court.” The memorandum leaves open the possibility that in multi-division circuits, division 7, for example, could be open on the day after Thanksgiving while division 12 could be closed. In addition, the time during which the trial court may rule on after-trial motions could be different in each of those divisions. These examples reflect only a few of the questions that the lawyer will have to ask, and for which the lawyer may be unable to obtain a clear response, regarding the practice in each circuit, “legal holiday” by “legal holiday.” These problems are compounded for the lawyer who practices in multiple circuits, that lawyer being more the rule than the exception. Furthermore, lack of uniformity, thus lack of certainty, regarding whether a day is a legal holiday may expose the lawyer to potential liability in a case where he or she may in good faith make an erroneous assumption with respect to whether or not a court is open.
To summarize, the majority’s holding results in the inability to ascertain what “legal holiday” may mean in a particular circuit in a particular year without taking unusual steps, some of which could not be taken until after the “legal holiday.” This inconsistency unnecessarily burdens the bar, the bench, and, ultimately, the citizens our profession serves. “Legal holiday” should be defined as a day designated as a public holiday by proper legislative enactment.

. This opinion reflects the holding of the opinion of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, in this case, authored by the Honorable Lawrence G. Crahan.