Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 4 > Chapter 1 > Part 4 - Miscellaneous

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Appropriate county or municipality: means the legislative body of the county or municipality that, by resolution or ordinance, respectively, created the emergency communications district. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• 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
• Assessed value: means value as assessed for municipal property tax purposes. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Assessed value: means value as assessed for municipal property tax purposes. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• 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.
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter and any assistant thereto by whatever name known, any district attorney general and any assistant thereto by whatever name called, and any officer or full-time employee of the general assembly or any committee thereof established by statute, who is duly licensed to practice law in Tennessee, whose duty it is to provide facilities for drafting bills or to assist individual legislators in drafting bills or who renders legal advice and services to the members of the general assembly or committees thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Board: means the board of assessment commissioners. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• central business improvement district: means the central business improvement district created by the establishment ordinance of the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Charter: means a document containing a unified government structure, pursuant to this chapter, that constitutes the fundamental law of the unified government. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• Charter commission: means a commission established to propose the charter to the voters for adoption as provided in this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• CMRS: means commercial mobile radio service under §. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Commission: means the Tennessee human rights commission. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Commission: means the commission on firefighting personnel standards and education created by this chapter. See Tennessee Code 4-24-201
• Commissioner: means any person in office as a member of the public service commission, as prescribed by title 65, chapter 1, prior to June 30, 1996. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Communications service: means a service that:
  (A) Is capable of contacting and has been enabled to contact a public safety answering point (PSAP) via a 911 network by entering or dialing the digits 911. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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: means any county whose voters have adopted a county charter government. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• County official: means a county clerk, a clerk of a circuit court, a criminal court, or a probate court, a clerk and master of a chancery court, a clerk of a general sessions court where such general sessions court has an independent clerk who serves such court only, a register of deeds, a county trustee, a sheriff, a county road superintendent elected by a county legislative body, by a county road commission or commissioners, or by popular vote, and an assessor of property, any county commissioner elected by popular vote, serving in a county having a county commission form of government. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• detention: includes the duties of employees assigned to guard individuals incarcerated in any penal institution. See Tennessee Code 4-21-407
• Direct dispatch method: means a 911 service in which a public service answering point, upon receipt of a telephone request for emergency services, provides for the dispatch of appropriate emergency service units and a decision as to the proper action to be taken. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Disability: means , with respect to a person:
  (i) A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one (1) or more of such person's major life activities. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Discriminatory practices: means any direct or indirect act or practice of exclusion, distinction, restriction, segregation, limitation, refusal, denial, or any other act or practice of differentiation or preference in the treatment of a person or persons because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age or national origin. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• District: means the central business district created by ordinance or resolution by a municipality, or a corridor of central business districts created by joint agreement of two (2) or more municipalities. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• District: means any emergency communications district created pursuant to this part. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• District management corporation: means the board or organization created or appointed pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• District management corporation: means the board or organization created or appointed pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Employer: means the state, or any political or civil subdivision thereof, and persons employing eight (8) or more persons within the state, or any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Employment agency: means any person or agency, public or private, regularly undertaking, with or without compensation, to procure employees for an employer or to procure for employees opportunities to work for an employer. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Establishment ordinance: means the ordinance of the governing body adopted pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Establishment ordinance: means the ordinance of the governing body adopted pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Familial status: means one (1) or more individuals, who have not attained eighteen (18) years of age, being domiciled with:
  (A) A parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or individuals. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Family: includes a single individual. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Federal communications commission order: means the Order of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC Docket 94-102, adopted on June 12, 1996, and released on July 26, 1996, and any subsequent amendments, and includes other federal communications commission rules and orders relating to CMRS providers, CMRS, and wireless enhanced 911 service. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Financial institution: means a bank, banking organization, mortgage company, insurance company or other lender to whom application is made for financial assistance for the purchase, lease, acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, repair, maintenance or improvements of real property, or an individual employed by or acting on behalf of any of these. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Fire department: means a department of a municipality, county, or political subdivision, or an organization, agency, or entity that offers its services, for or without pay, for the purpose of suppressing fires, performing rescue services, or for other emergency response purposes. See Tennessee Code 4-24-201
• Firefighter: means an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily to perform work directly connected with the control and extinguishment of fires or the maintenance and use of firefighting apparatus and equipment, including an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position. See Tennessee Code 4-21-407
• Firefighter: means a person in the employ of a unit of government fire department that is registered and recognized by the state fire marshal and is required to extinguish and control fires or fire-related incidents. See Tennessee Code 4-24-201
• 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.
• Governing body: means the council or commission or other municipal body exercising general legislative power in the municipality or any county legislative body. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Governing body: means the council, commission, board or other body exercising general legislative power in the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Governing body: means the council, commission, board or other body exercising general legislative power in the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• Governmental entity: means a state agency, authority, board, commission, department, or office within the executive or judicial branch of state government or any autonomous state agency, authority, board, commission, department, office, or institution of higher education. See Tennessee Code 8-31-102
• 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.
• Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Housing accommodation: includes improved and unimproved property and means a building, structure, lot or part thereof that is used or occupied, or is intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied, as the home or residence of one (1) or more individuals. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Initiating petition: means the petition filed pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Initiating petition: means the petition filed pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• Initiating resolution: means the resolution adopted by the governing body pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Initiating resolution: means the resolution adopted by the governing body pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• inner-city redevelopment district: means the inner-city redevelopment district created by the establishment ordinance of the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• IP-enabled services: means services and applications making use of Internet protocol (IP) including, but not limited to, voice over IP and other services and applications provided through wireline, cable, wireless, and satellite facilities, and any other facility that may be provided in the future through platforms that may not be deployable at present, that are capable of connecting users dialing or entering the digits 911 to public safety answering points (PSAPs). See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• 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.
• Labor organization: includes any organization that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining or of dealing with employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or for other mutual aid or protection in relation to employment or any agent acting for organizations. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Law enforcement officer: means an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily the investigation, apprehension or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of offenses against state criminal laws, including an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position. See Tennessee Code 4-21-407
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member: means any person included in the membership of the retirement system, as provided in chapter 35, part 1 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Metropolitan government: means the political entity created by consolidation of all, or substantially all, of the political and corporate functions of a county and a city or cities. See Tennessee Code 7-1-101
• Military duty: means :
  (i) Training and service performed by an inductee, enlistee, or reservist or any entrant into a temporary component of the armed forces of the United States. See Tennessee Code 8-33-101
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Municipality: means an incorporated city or town located within the boundaries of a county whose voters have adopted a county charter government. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• Municipality: means any incorporated city, town, metropolitan government, or county of this state exercising general governmental functions in the state. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Municipality: means any incorporated city, town or metropolitan government of this state exercising general governmental functions in the state. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Municipality: means any incorporated city, town or metropolitan government of this state exercising general governmental functions in the state. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• National origin: includes the national origin of an ancestor. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Non-wireline service: means any service provided by any person, corporation or entity, other than a service supplier as defined in this part, that connects a user dialing or entering the digits 911 to a PSAP, including, but not limited to, commercial mobile radio service and IP-enabled services. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• 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.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: means record owner in fee. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Owner: means record owner in fee, or a duly authorized representative. See Tennessee Code 7-84-503
• Owner: means record owner in fee, or duly authorized representative. See Tennessee Code 7-84-603
• 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: includes one (1) or more individuals, governments, governmental agencies, public authorities, labor organizations, corporations, legal representatives, partnerships, associations, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers, mutual companies, joint stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations or other organized groups of persons. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Position: means employment held by a public employee at the time of entrance into military duty, but does not include temporary or casual employment or an office filled by election. See Tennessee Code 8-33-101
• 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.
• Principal city: means that municipality having the largest population of any municipality in a particular county. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• Probate: Proving a will
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• PSAP: means a facility that has been designated to receive 911 phone calls and route them to emergency services personnel pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Public employee: means any person holding a position in public employment who has successfully completed the probationary period required by the agency in which such person is employed. See Tennessee Code 8-33-101
• Public employment: means employment by the government of this state, or of any county, municipality or other civil or political subdivision thereof, including any department or agency thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-33-101
• Public safety emergency services provider: means any municipality or county government that provides emergency services to the public. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real estate operator: means any individual or combination of individuals, labor unions, joint apprenticeship committees, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers or other legal or commercial entities, or the county or any of its agencies, that is engaged in the business of selling, purchasing, exchanging, renting or leasing real estate, or the improvements thereon, including options, or that derives income, in whole or in part, from the sale, purchase, exchange, rental or lease of real estate. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• real estate salesperson: means an individual, whether licensed or not, who, on behalf of others, for a fee, commission, salary, or other valuable consideration, or who with the intention or expectation of receiving or collecting the same, lists, sells, purchases, exchanges, rents or leases real estate, or the improvements thereon, including options, or who negotiates or attempts to negotiate on behalf of others such activity. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Real estate transaction: includes the sale, exchange, rental or lease of real property. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: includes buildings, structures, real estate, lands, tenements, leaseholds, cooperatives, condominiums, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, or any interest in these. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Relative: means a parent, foster parent, parent-in-law, child, spouse, brother, foster brother, sister, foster sister, grandparent, grandchild, son-in-law, brother-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, or other family member who resides in the same household. See Tennessee Code 8-31-102
• Relay method: means a 911 service in which a public safety answering point, upon receipt of a telephone request for emergency services, notes the pertinent information from the caller and relays such information to the appropriate public safety agency or other agencies or other providers of emergency service for dispatch of an emergency unit. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• 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).
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Retirement: means withdrawal from membership with a retirement allowance granted under chapters 34-37 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Service: means service as a general employee, a teacher, a state police officer, a wildlife officer, a firefighter, a police officer, a state judge, a county judge, an attorney general, a commissioner or a county official which is paid for by an employer, and also includes service for which a former member of the general assembly is entitled to under former §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Service supplier: means any person, corporation or entity providing exchange telephone service to any service user. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Service user: means any person, corporation or entity that is provided 911 service. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• 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.
• Sex: means and refers only to the designation of an individual person as male or female as indicated on the individual's birth certificate. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• sex: means a person's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person's biological sex. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Smaller city: means any municipality within a county other than the principal city. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State employee: means any person who is employed by a governmental entity. See Tennessee Code 8-31-102
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Transfer method: means a 911 service in which a public safety answering point, upon receipt of a telephone request for emergency services, directly transfers such request to an appropriate public safety agency or other provider of emergency services. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• 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.
• unified: means consolidation or consolidated pursuant to this chapter and that power granted by the Constitution of Tennessee, Article XI, §. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• Unified government: means the governmental entity created by the unification of the governmental and corporate functions of a charter county government with the governmental and corporate functions of one (1) or more municipalities within that county's boundaries. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• Unified municipality: means a former municipality that has merged into a unified government pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-21-104
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Volunteer firefighter: means a person who volunteers with a county, municipal, or nonprofit fire department that is registered and recognized by the state fire marshal and who is required to extinguish and control fires or fire-related incidents. See Tennessee Code 4-24-201
• Wireless telecommunications service: means commercial mobile radio service as defined by 47 C. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105