Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: contract/construction--remodeling

Although I don't have information to show for sure that your contract has a three business day right of rescission, it sounds like one which would. In that case, three business days PROBABLY would expire 60 seconds after 11:59 PM of May 26th. As of May 27th, you'd have lost the right. Here's the somewhat shaky analysis:

May 21st doesn't count. Civil Code section 10.

May 22nd, a Friday, was Day One.

May 23rd, a Saturday, was PROBABLY Day Two. This is the huge research nightmare I've encountered in trying to give you an accurate answer. An hour of research has not turned up an unequivocal statute or case holding whether Saturdays are business days for purposes of calculating the right of rescission. California's venerable Civil Code says at sections 7 and 9 that all days other than Sundays and designated holidays are business days, and I have to go with that. A fair number of more special-purpose statutes in the Commercial Code, Corporations Code and elsewhere say that "for purposes of this section, business days are all days other than Saturdays, Sundays and holidays" but this phraseology doesn not turn up in any rescission-period law I've found. I'd also note that Code of Civil Procedure section 12a says that if the LAST DAY for doing an act falls on a Saturday, the act can be put off until the next non-holiday - but this is a different concept than whether Saturdays are counted in determining when a three-day period is up, and the Civil Code is definite on that issue.

May 24, Sunday, doesn't count; Civil Code 7 & 9.

May 25, Monday, doesn't count, either; same code sections (not a business day because it is a holiday).

May 26, Tuesday, is Day 3. You had until midnight to rescind.

I am going to be very embarrassed if someone including myself later comes up with a specific law or case saying "don't count Saturday," but right now I think it counts. Also, even though you theoretically had until Midnight to inform the contractor of your decision to rescind, if you failed to communicate it because they had all gone home at 5 p.m. and no one got your call (or FAX if it must be in writing), you'd probably lose in court.