Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 4501 - Motor Vehicles - Definitions; General Provisions

• 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.
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Battery electric motor vehicle: means a passenger car powered wholly by a battery cell energy system that can be recharged via an external source of electricity. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Bicycle: means every device, other than a device that is designed solely for use as a play vehicle by a child, that is propelled solely by human power upon which a person may ride, and that has two or more wheels, any of which is more than fourteen inches in diameter. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Bus: means any motor vehicle that has motor power and is designed and used for carrying more than nine passengers, except any motor vehicle that is designed and used for carrying not more than fifteen passengers in a ridesharing arrangement. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Chauffeured limousine: means a motor vehicle that is designed to carry nine or fewer passengers and is operated for hire pursuant to a prearranged contract for the transportation of passengers on public roads and highways along a route under the control of the person hiring the vehicle and not over a defined and regular route. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Child: includes child by adoption. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• dealer: include all persons and firms that are regularly engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling, displaying, offering for sale, or dealing in motor vehicles, at an established place of business that is used exclusively for the purpose of manufacturing, selling, displaying, offering for sale, or dealing in motor vehicles. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Distributor: means any person who is authorized by a motor vehicle manufacturer to distribute new motor vehicles to licensed motor vehicle dealers at an established place of business that is used exclusively for the purpose of distributing new motor vehicles to licensed motor vehicle dealers, except when the distributor also is a new motor vehicle dealer, in which case the distributor may distribute at the location of the distributor's licensed dealership. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic: includes electrical, digital, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, or any other form of technology that entails capabilities similar to these technologies. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Electronic motor vehicle dealer: means a motor vehicle dealer licensed under Chapter 4517 of the Revised Code whom the registrar of motor vehicles determines meets the criteria designated in section 4503. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Electronic record: means a record generated, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means for use in an information system or for transmission from one information system to another. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• 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.
• 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.
• Farm machinery: means all machines and tools that are used in the production, harvesting, and care of farm products, and includes trailers that are used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural production materials between a local place of storage or supply and the farm, agricultural tractors, threshing machinery, hay-baling machinery, corn shellers, hammermills, and machinery used in the production of horticultural, agricultural, and vegetable products. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• 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.
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• International registration plan: means a reciprocal agreement of member jurisdictions that is endorsed by the American association of motor vehicle administrators, and that promotes and encourages the fullest possible use of the highway system by authorizing apportioned registration of fleets of vehicles and recognizing registration of vehicles apportioned in member jurisdictions. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Internet: means the international computer network of both federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data networks, including the graphical subnetwork known as the world wide web. See Ohio Code 1.59
• 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}
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Mobile home: means a building unit or assembly of closed construction that is fabricated in an off-site facility, is more than thirty-five body feet in length or, when erected on site, is three hundred twenty or more square feet, is built on a permanent chassis, is transportable in one or more sections, and does not qualify as a manufactured home as defined in division (C)(4) of section 3781. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Motor vehicle: means any vehicle, including mobile homes and recreational vehicles, that is propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Motorcycle: means a motor vehicle with motive power having a seat or saddle for the use of the operator, designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, and having no occupant compartment top or occupant compartment top that can be installed or removed by the user. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Operator: includes any person who drives or operates a motor vehicle upon the public highways. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Owner: includes any person or firm, other than a manufacturer or dealer, that has title to a motor vehicle, except that, in sections 4505. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• 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.
• Passenger car: means any motor vehicle that is designed and used for carrying not more than nine persons and includes any motor vehicle that is designed and used for carrying not more than fifteen persons in a ridesharing arrangement. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Population: means that shown by the most recent regular federal census. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Prearranged contract: means an agreement, made in advance of boarding, to provide transportation from a specific location in a chauffeured limousine. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recreational vehicle: means a vehicular portable structure that meets all of the following conditions:

  (1) It is designed for the sole purpose of recreational travel. See Ohio Code 4501.01

• Ridesharing arrangement: means the transportation of persons in a motor vehicle where the transportation is incidental to another purpose of a volunteer driver and includes ridesharing arrangements known as carpools, vanpools, and buspools. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Semitrailer: means any vehicle of the trailer type that does not have motive power and is so designed or used with another and separate motor vehicle that in operation a part of its own weight or that of its load, or both, rests upon and is carried by the other vehicle furnishing the motive power for propelling itself and the vehicle referred to in this division, and includes, for the purpose only of registration and taxation under those chapters, any vehicle of the dolly type, such as a trailer dolly, that is designed or used for the conversion of a semitrailer into a trailer. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Solid tires: means tires of rubber or similar elastic material that are not dependent upon confined air for support of the load. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• State: includes the territories and federal districts of the United States, and the provinces of Canada. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trailer: means any vehicle without motive power that is designed or used for carrying property or persons wholly on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, and includes any such vehicle that is formed by or operated as a combination of a semitrailer and a vehicle of the dolly type such as that commonly known as a trailer dolly, a vehicle used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural production materials between a local place of storage or supply and the farm when drawn or towed on a public road or highway at a speed greater than twenty-five miles per hour, and a vehicle that is designed and used exclusively to transport a boat between a place of storage and a marina, or in and around a marina, when drawn or towed on a public road or highway for a distance of more than ten miles or at a speed of more than twenty-five miles per hour. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Travel trailer: includes a tent-type fold-out camping trailer as defined in section 4517. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• truck: means any motor vehicle that has motor power and is designed and used for carrying merchandise or freight, or that is used as a commercial tractor. See Ohio Code 4501.01
• Undertaking: includes a bond. See Ohio Code 1.02
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• Vehicles: means everything on wheels or runners, including motorized bicycles, but does not mean electric personal assistive mobility devices, low-speed micromobility devices, vehicles that are operated exclusively on rails or tracks or from overhead electric trolley wires, and vehicles that belong to any police department, municipal fire department, or volunteer fire department, or that are used by such a department in the discharge of its functions. See Ohio Code 4501.01