In computing any period of time prescribed or allowed by these rules, by order of court, or by any applicable statute, the date of the act, event or default after which the designated period of time begins to run is not to be included.The last day of the period so computed shall be included unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday, or a legal holiday as defined in Tenn. Code Ann. § 15-1-101, or, when the act to be done is the filing of a paper in court, a day on which the office of the court clerk is closed or on which weather or other conditions have made the office of the court clerk inaccessible, in which event the period runs until the end of the next day which is not one of the aforementioned days. When the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than eleven (11) days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays shall be excluded in the computation.
Tenn. R. Civ. P. 6.01
Advisory Commission Comments [2011].
Rule 6.01 is amended to define “legal holiday” by reference to statute, Tenn. Code Ann. § 15-1-101. The status of a day as a legal holiday is statutory; thus, for the purpose of filing papers in court, it does not depend on whether the clerk’s office is open for business. For example, state offices might be open on Columbus Day, pursuant to the governor’s authority under Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-4-1 05(a)(3) to substitute the day after Thanksgiving for the Columbus Day holiday; in such circumstances, however, Columbus Day is still a “legal holiday” for purposes of computing time periods under the rule.
Rule 6.01 also is amended to add a reference to days on which the office of the court clerk is closed.