Opinion  Summary of Selected Opinion 98-050

Date:	04/01/1998
Organization:	Division of Banks
Docket Number:	98-050

This opinion was issued in the second quarter of 1998.

Definition of "business day"

In sales consummated at locations other than the address of the seller, "door to door" sales, the buyer has a right of cancellation under Mass. Gen. Laws chapter 255D, section 14. The buyer has until midnight of the third business day following the execution of the agreement to notify the seller of the cancellation. M.G.L. ch. 255D does not define "business day;" neither does Mass. Gen. Laws chapter 93, section 48, which governs general regulation of trade area, nor is "business day" on the list of defined statutory terms at Mass. Gen. Laws chapter 4, section 7. Regulations governing the disclosure of consumer credit costs and terms, so-called "truth-in-lending" regulations, 209 CMR 32.00 et seq. define "business day" as "a day on which a creditor's offices are open to the public for carrying on substantially all of its business functions." The regulation's definition for purposes of rescission, in 209 CMR 32.02, is "all calendar days except Sundays and legal federal public holidays and any legal holiday under the laws of the Commonwealth." A right of cancellation is analogous to the right of rescission in the context of Truth-in-Lending.

Additionally, the federal regulation known as the "Cooling-Off Period" Rule, in 16 CFR Part 429, defines "business day" as "any calendar day except Sunday or any federal holiday." It is the Division's position that a right of cancellation is analogous to a right of rescission. For consistency with the comparable provision in the federal "Cooling-Off Period" Rule, a business day, as referred to in the chapter 255D right of cancellation provision, includes: all calendar days except Sundays; the legal federal holidays as specified in 5 USC 6103(a); and any legal holiday under the laws of the Commonwealth.