A day, in law, includes the whole twenty-four hours, without any reference to the season of the year, or the amount of light or darkness. Where there is no qualifying stipulation, therefore, the obligation to pay on a certain day is discharged, if the money be paid before twelve o'clock at night, or the commencement of the following day. On the same principle, if anything is to be done within a certain time from or after the doing of a certain other thing, the day on which the first act or occurrence takes place is excluded. If A binds himself to pay money ten days after B's death, and B dies on the 1st, the money will not be be due till the night of the 11th at twelve o'clock. Where it is not absolutely necessary, for the purposes of justice, the law excludes fractional portions of time; thus, half a year consists of 182 days, and it quarter of a year of 91.
A lawful day is a day on which there is no legal impediment to the execution of a writ—i.e., all days except Sundays and fast-days appointed by government. Criminal warrants are an exception to this rule. and may be both granted and executed on Sun
days and fast days. By 29 Car. II. e. 7, all contracts made by persons in their ordinary calling on a Sunday are void. The exceptions to this rule will be explained under LORD'S DAY. In England, Christmas-day, Good Friday, and Easter-day generally stand on the same footing with days appointed by royal proclamation for public fasting and Domination; but in Scotland, there is no exception made in favor of any of the feast or fast days of the church.
Days of Grace. The time at which a bill is actually due, or at maturity, is in general three days after the time expressed on the face of it. The three additional days which are generally allowed by the custom of merchants, and which the laws of the United Kingdom recognize and protect, are called days of grace. If the third day of grace fall on a Sunday, the bill is payable the day before. If it fall on any of the bank holidays, the bill is payable the day after. See BILL.