Time is never considered as of the essence of the contract, unless by its terms expressly so provided.
S.D. Codified Laws § 53-10-3
Time as essence of the contract
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Ramesbotham v. Farmers Elevator Co. (1988)
Most recently applied in Ramesbotham v. Farmers Elevator Co. (August 1988)
Source: CivC 1877, § 949; CL 1887, § 3573; RCivC 1903, § 1267; RC 1919, § 888; SDC 1939, § 10.0107.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.