Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 22A > Article 2A - Use of Diesel-Powered Equipment in Underground Coal Mines

• Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all amounts deducted from the compensations of a member and credited to his or her individual account in the members' deposit fund, together with regular interest on the contributions. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Actuarial equivalent: means a benefit of equal value computed upon the basis of a mortality table and regular interest adopted by the board of trustees from time to time: . See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Annuity: means an annual amount payable by the retirement system throughout the life of a person. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attack: means any attack or series of attacks by an enemy of the United States causing, or which may cause, substantial damages or injury to civilian property or persons in the United States in any manner by sabotage or by the use of bombs, missiles, shellfire, or atomic, radiological, chemical, bacteriological, or biological means or other weapons or processes. See West Virginia Code 6A-1-3
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Authorized officer: means any official of this state or of any of its departments, agencies, boards, commissions or other instrumentalities or of any of its public corporations, political subdivisions, municipal corporations or other governmental units whose signature to a public security or instrument of payment is required or permitted. See West Virginia Code 6-14-1
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Beneficiary: means any person which shall include an irrevocable special needs trust, as that term is defined in this section, for the benefit of one individual beneficiary and which trust terminates upon the death of such individual with no further annuity benefits being payable, except a retirant, who is entitled to, or will be entitled to, an annuity or other benefit payable by the retirement system. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• board: means the Board of Trustees of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Business: means any entity through which business for-profit is conducted including a corporation, partnership, proprietorship, franchise, association, organization, or self-employed individual. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Charter: shall mean , except where specific reference is made to a particular type of charter, either a special legislative charter (whether or not amended under the provisions of former §. See West Virginia Code 8-1-2
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Code: shall mean the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as heretofore and hereafter amended. See West Virginia Code 8-1-2
• commission: means the West Virginia Ethics Commission. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Committee substitute: Short for committee amendment in the nature of a substitute.
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Compensation: means the remuneration paid a member by a participating public employer for personal services rendered by the member to the participating public employer. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contributing service: means service rendered by a member within this state and for which the member made contributions to a public retirement system account of this state, to the extent credited him or her as provided by this article. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• County court: includes any existing tribunal created in lieu of a county commission. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Credited service: means the sum of a member's prior service credit, military service credit, workers' compensation service credit, and contributing service credit standing to his or her credit as provided in this article. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Emergency interim successor: means a person designated pursuant to this article, in the event the officer is unavailable, to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of an office until a successor is appointed or elected and qualified as may be provided by the Constitution, statutes, charters and ordinances or until the lawful incumbent is able to resume the exercise of the powers and discharge the duties of the office. See West Virginia Code 6A-1-3
• Employee: means any person in the service of another under any contract of hire, whether express or implied, oral, or written, where the employer or an agent of the employer or a public official has the right or power to control and direct such person in the material details of how work is to be performed and who is not responsible for the making of policy nor for recommending official action. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Employee: means any person who serves regularly as an officer or employee, full-time, on a salary basis, whose tenure is not restricted as to temporary or provisional appointment, in the service of, and whose compensation is payable, in whole or in part, by any political subdivision, or an officer or employee whose compensation is calculated on a daily basis and paid monthly or on completion of assignment, including technicians and other personnel employed by the West Virginia National Guard whose compensation, in whole or in part, is paid by the federal government: . See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Employer error: means an omission, misrepresentation, or deliberate act in violation of relevant provisions of the West Virginia Code or of the West Virginia Code of State Regulations or the relevant provisions of both the West Virginia Code and of the West Virginia Code of State Regulations by the participating public employer that has resulted in an underpayment or overpayment of contributions required. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Facsimile signature: means a reproduction by engraving, imprinting, stamping or other means of the manual signature of an authorized officer. See West Virginia Code 6-14-1
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Final average salary: means either of the following: . See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Finance charge: The total cost of credit a customer must pay on a consumer loan, including interest. The Truth in Lending Act requires disclosure of the finance charge. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: shall mean the mayor and council together, the council, the board of directors, the commission, or other board or body of any municipality, by whatever name called, as the case may be, charged with the responsibility of enacting ordinances and determining the public policy of such municipality. See West Virginia Code 8-1-2
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Instrument of payment: means a check, draft, warrant or order for the payment, delivery or transfer of funds. See West Virginia Code 6-14-1
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Internal Revenue Code: means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, codified at Title 26 of the United States Code. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Judgment: includes decrees and orders for the payment of money, or the conveyance or delivery of land or personal property, or some interest therein, or any undertaking, bond or recognizance which has the legal effect of a judgment. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Limited credited service: means service by employees of the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority, in the employment of West Virginia University, during a period when the employee made contributions to another retirement system, as required by West Virginia University, and did not make contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System: . See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member: means any person who has accumulated contributions standing to his or her credit in the members' deposit fund. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Ministerial functions: means actions or functions performed by an individual under a given state of facts in a prescribed manner in accordance with a mandate of legal authority, without regard to, or without the exercise of, the individual&rsquo. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Office: includes all state and local offices, the powers and duties of which are defined by the Constitution, statutes, charters, and ordinances, except the office of Governor, and except those in the Legislature and the judiciary. See West Virginia Code 6A-1-3
• Ordinance: shall mean the ordinances and laws enacted by the governing body of a municipality in the exercise of its legislative power, and in one or more articles of this chapter, ordinances enacted by a county commission. See West Virginia Code 8-1-2
• Participating public employer: means the State of West Virginia, any board, commission, department, institution, or spending unit, and includes any agency created by rule of the Supreme Court of Appeals having full-time employees, which for the purposes of this article is considered a department of state government. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business entity, labor union, association, firm, partnership, limited partnership, committee, club, or other organization or group of persons, irrespective of the denomination given such organization or group. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Person: shall mean any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint-stock association, or any other entity or organization of whatever character or description. See West Virginia Code 8-1-2
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• personal property: includes goods, chattels, real and personal, money, credits, investments, and the evidences thereof. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plan year: means the same as referenced in §. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Political contribution: means and has the same definition as is given that term under the provisions of §. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Political subdivision: means the State of West Virginia, a county, city or town in the state. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Political subdivision: includes counties, cities, towns, districts, authorities, and other public corporations and entities, whether organized and existing under charter or general law. See West Virginia Code 6A-1-3
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Prior service: means service rendered prior to July 1, 1961, to the extent credited a member as provided in this article. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public employee: means any full-time or part-time employee of any state, county or municipal governmental body or any political subdivision thereof, including county school boards. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• public official: includes a public servant volunteer. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Public security: means a bond, note, certificate of indebtedness or other obligation for the payment of money issued by this state or by any of its departments, agencies, boards, commissions or other instrumentalities or by any of its public corporations, political subdivisions, municipal corporations or other governmental units. See West Virginia Code 6-14-1
• Public servant volunteer: means any person who, without compensation, performs services on behalf of a public official and who is granted or vested with powers, privileges, or authorities ordinarily reserved to public officials. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Regular interest: means the rate or rates of interest per annum, compounded annually, as the board of trustees adopts from time to time. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Relative: means spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, son-in-law, or daughter-in-law. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Respondent: means a person who is the subject of an investigation by the commission or against whom a complaint has been filed with the commission. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retirant: means any member who commences an annuity payable by the retirement system. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Retirement: means a member's withdrawal from the employ of a participating public employer and the commencement of an annuity by the retirement system. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Retroactive service: means : (1) Service between July 1, 1961, and the date an employer decides to become a participating member of the Public Employees Retirement System. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Review Board: means the Probable Cause Review Board created by §. See West Virginia Code 6B-1-3
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Service: means personal service rendered to a participating public employer by an employee of a participating public employer. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Special needs trust: means a trust established pursuant to §. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• State: means the State of West Virginia. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• State: means a state of the United States, or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See West Virginia Code 48-14-601
• State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• system: means the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System created and established by this article. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Town: includes a city, village or town, and the word "council" any body or board, whether composed of one or more branches, which is authorized to make ordinances for the government of a city, town, or village. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Unavailable: means either that a vacancy in office exists and there is no deputy authorized to exercise all of the powers and discharge the duties of the office, or that the lawful incumbent of the office, including any deputy exercising the powers and discharging the duties of an office because of a vacancy and his duly authorized deputy, are absent or unable to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the office. See West Virginia Code 6A-1-3
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.