Colorado’s second-highest court clarified for the first time on Thursday that the rule extending deadlines in civil cases when the final day falls on a weekend or holiday also applies to litigants seeking review of governmental decisions.

Nicholas A. Rigato was incarcerated at Fremont Correctional Facility when prison officials found him guilty of three conduct violations. After an administrator upheld Rigato’s discipline on April 29, 2024, he had 28 days to file for judicial review under the civil case rules.

But that date, May 27, was Memorial Day. Rigato instead filed a complaint in Fremont County District Court the following day, May 28.

The government moved to dismiss the case, and then-Chief Judge Patrick W. Murphy agreed, noting Rigato’s deadline was May 27.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel analyzed the connection between the 28-day rule for judicial review and another civil rule that automatically extends the filing deadline when the last day falls on a weekend or holiday. That calculation applies to “any period of time prescribed or allowed by these rules.”

The government cited to a 2022 Colorado Supreme Court decision that declared the 28-day judicial review deadline “functions as a strict limitation period to invoke the district court’s jurisdiction,” with judges not permitted to extend it.

However, wrote Judge Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov in the April 30 opinion, Rigato’s case did not involve a judicial extension of the deadline. Rather, the question was whether the deadline automatically fell on the day after Memorial Day because of the weekend and holiday rule. The panel concluded it did.

“Because Rigato filed his complaint on that date, the district court erred by dismissing his case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” wrote Lipinsky.

The case is Rigato v. Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections et al.