Minn. R. Civ. P. 6.05
As amended through February 1, 2024
Whenever a party has the right or is required to do some act or take some proceedings within a prescribed period after the service of a notice or other document upon the party, and the notice or document is served upon the party by United States Mail, three days shall be added to the prescribed period. If service is made by any means other than United States Mail and accomplished after 5:00 p.m. local Minnesota time on the day of service, one additional day shall be added to the prescribed period.
Minn. R. Civ. P. 6.05
The amendment to Rule 6.01conforms the rule to its federal counterpart. The committee believes it is desirable to define explicitly what constitutes a "legal holiday." Given the nature of Minnesota's weather, the committee believes specific provision for dealing with inclement weather should be made in the rules. The federal rule enumerates specific holidays. That drafting approach is not feasible in Minnesota because Minnesota Statutes, section 645.44,subdivision 5, defines legal holidays, but allows the judiciary to pick either Columbus Day or the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday. Whichever is selected is defined to be a holiday under the rule.
The amendment to Rule 6.05conforms the rule to the federal rule except for the last sentence which is new and has no federal counterpart. This provision is intended to discourage the unseemly practices of sliding a "service" under the door of opposing counsel or sending a facsimile transmission after the close of business and asserting timely service. Such service will be timely under the rules, but will add a day to the time to respond. If the paper is due to be served a fixed number of days before an event, that number should be increased by one as well, making it necessary to serve late in the day before the deadline.
Advisory Committee Comment-2007 Amendment
Rule 6.01is amended to remove potential ambiguity in the existing rule. The rule is ambiguous because of the odd definition of "holiday" in Minn. Stat. § 645.44, subd. 5, and its ambiguity over how Columbus Day is treated. Additionally, because the rules explicitly provide for service by mail, the court recognized that a "mail holiday" should be a "legal holiday" for the purpose of this rule.
The rule excuses filing on the last day of a time period if the court administrator's office is inaccessible. The amended rule replaces an indefinite concept of the court administrator's office being "inaccessible" with a more definite formulation: the office of the administrator of the court where the action is pending must actually be closed.
Rule 6.05is amended to make the rule definite as to what forms of service qualify as "service by mail." The rule as amended explicitly allows three additional days only for service by United States Mail; the use of any other delivery or courier service does not constitute "United States Mail," and therefore does not qualify for additional time. This rule is now consistent with Minn. R. Civ. P. 4.05,which specifies "first-class mail" as the means for service by mail.
Advisory Committee Comment-2012 Amendment
Rule 6.01 is amended to add unavailability of the court-authorized e-filing and e-service system as a circumstance that would result in the extension of the time period. This extension applies only where the system problem occurs on the last day of the period and should only apply where the problem is not momentary. The rule requires that unavailability of the e-filing system actually prevent compliance with the service or filing requirements. This certainly eliminates use of a shortlived shutdown from extending the deadline except, possibly, where it occurs right at the end of the day. Where the shutdown occurs for a substantial part of the day and where it continues through the close of business, then the additional day would be automatically applied.