ENROLLED
H. B. 4254
(By Delegates Mahan, Dalton, Tomblin,
Stemple, Smirl and L. White)
[Passed March 14, 1998; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact sections one, two and three, article
two, chapter two of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating generally to
the computation of time within which a proceeding is to take
place or an act is to be done; and designating days as weather
or other emergency days when weather or emergency conditions
prevent the general transaction of court business in a county.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one, two and three, article two, chapter two of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. LEGAL HOLIDAYS; SPECIAL MEMORIAL DAYS; CONSTRUCTION OF
STATUTES; DEFINITIONS.
§2-2-1. Legal holidays; official acts or court proceedings.
(a) The following days are legal holidays:
(1) The first day of January is "New Year's Day";
(2) The third Monday of January is "Martin Luther King's
Birthday";
(3) The twelfth day of February is "Lincoln's Birthday";
(4) The third Monday of February is "Washington's Birthday";
(5) The last Monday in May is "Memorial Day";
(6) The twentieth day of June is "West Virginia Day";
(7) The fourth day of July is "Independence Day";
(8) The first Monday of September is "Labor Day";
(9) The second Monday of October is "Columbus Day";
(10) The eleventh day of November is "Veterans' Day";
(11) The fourth Thursday of November is "Thanksgiving Day";
(12) The twenty-fifth day of December is "Christmas Day";
(13) Any day on which a general, primary or special election
is held is a holiday throughout the state, a political subdivision
of the state, a district or an incorporated city, town or village
in which the election is conducted; and
(14) Any day proclaimed or ordered by the governor or the
president of the United States as a day of special observance or
Thanksgiving, or a day for the general cessation of business, is a
holiday.
(b) If a holiday otherwise described in subsection (a) of this
section falls on a Sunday, then the following Monday is the legal
holiday. If a holiday otherwise described in subsection (a) of this section falls on a Saturday, then the preceding Friday is the
legal holiday:
Provided, That this subsection (b) shall not apply
to subdivision (13), subsection (a) of this section.
(c) Any day or part thereof designated by the governor as time
off, without charge against accrued annual leave, for state
employees statewide may also be time off for county employees if
the county commission elects to designate the day or part thereof
as time off, without charge against accrued annual leave for county
employees. Any entire or part statewide day off designated by the
governor may, for all courts, be treated as if it were a legal
holiday.
(d) In computing any period of time prescribed by any
applicable provision of this code or any legislative rule or other
administrative rule or regulation promulgated pursuant to the
provisions of this code, the day of the act, event, default or
omission from which the applicable period begins to run is not
included. The last day of the period so computed is included,
unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal holiday or a designated
day off in which event the prescribed period of time runs until the
end of the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday
or designated day off.
(e) If any applicable provision of this code or any
legislative rule or other administrative rule or regulation
promulgated pursuant to the provisions of this code designates a particular date on, before or after which an act, event, default or
omission is required or allowed to occur, and if the particular
date designated falls on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday or
designated day off, then the date on which the act, event, default
or omission is required or allowed to occur is the next day that is
not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday or designated day off.
(f) With regard to the courts of this state, the computation
of periods of time, the specific dates or days when an act, event,
default or omission is required or allowed to occur and the
relationship of those time periods and dates to Saturdays, Sundays,
legal holidays, or days designated as weather or other emergency
days pursuant to section two of this article are governed by rules
promulgated by the supreme court of appeals.
(g) The provisions of this section do not increase or diminish
the legal school holidays provided for in section two, article
five, chapter eighteen-a of this code.
§2-2-2. When acts to be done fall on Saturday, Sunday or legal
holiday; adjournments from day to day.
(a) When a proceeding is directed to take place or any act to
be done on any particular day of the month or within any period of
time prescribed or allowed, including those provided by article
two, chapter fifty-five, of this code, if that day or the last day
falls on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or a weather or other
emergency day, the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or a weather or other emergency day shall be deemed to be
the one intended, and when the day upon which a term of court is
directed by law to commence, falls on a Saturday, Sunday, legal
holiday, or a weather or other emergency day, the following day
that is not a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or a weather or
other emergency day shall be deemed to be the day intended. When
an adjournment is authorized from day to day, an adjournment from
Friday to Monday will be legal.
(b)(1) For purposes of this section, "weather or other
emergency day" means a day designated for a county in accordance
with the provisions of subdivision (2) of this subsection as a day
upon which weather or other emergency conditions in that county
prevent the general transaction of court business in that county.
(2) A weather or other emergency day is designated by order of
the chief justice of the supreme court of appeals or by order of
the chief judge of the circuit court of the county in which the
proceeding is directed to take place or in which the act is to be
done.
§2-2-3. Computation of time.
The provisions of sections one and two of this article
relating to the time or period prescribed or allowed within which
an act is to be done shall not be deemed to change any rule of law
applicable to bills of exchange or negotiable notes.