The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will be closed on Monday, January 14, 2019, due to the inclement weather. For purposes of computation of time and for motions to enlarge time under Fed. R. App. Proc. 26 and Fed. Cir. R. 26, January 14, 2019, will be considered a “legal holiday.” Telework-ready employees should follow their office’s policies.
The CAFC always gets snow days wrong. Instead of designating this a “legal holiday,” they should have designated this a day on which the clerk’s office is “inaccessible.” The way “next day” is defined in the rules, if today is the deadline for some event calculated by counting backwards from some other date, the “next day” that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or “legal holiday” would have been last Friday. See FRAP 26(a)(1)(C) and 26(a)(5) (“next day” defined).
In contrast, FRAP 26(a)(3) doesn’t use the “next day” terminology, so for days on which the clerk’s office is inaccessible, the deadline is extended until tomorrow or whenever the court re-opens, no matter which direction you are counting days.
Is the Patent Office closed today (also due to inclement weather?) as well?
I received an automated notice from the Postal Service this morning on an Express Mailing due to be delivered today; the notice stating:
“Your package has a delivery exception. We attempted to deliver your package at x:xx am on January 14, 2019 in ALEXANDRIA, VA 22313 but could not access the delivery location. We will redeliver on the next business day.”
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