Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 51.1 > Chapter 1 - Virginia Retirement System

• Abolished system: means the Virginia Retirement Act, §§ 51-30 through 51-111, repealed by Chapter 1 of the Acts of Assembly of 1952. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all amounts deducted from the compensation of a member and credited to his individual account in the member's contribution account, all amounts the member may contribute to purchase creditable service, all member contributions contributed by the employer on behalf of the employee, on or after July 1, 1980, except those amounts contributed on behalf of members of the General Assembly who are otherwise retired under the provisions of this chapter, and all interest accruing to these funds. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• Actuarial equivalent: means a benefit of equal value when computed upon the basis of actuarial tables adopted by the Board. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• Average final compensation: means the average annual creditable compensation of a member during his 60 highest consecutive months of creditable service or during the entire period of his creditable service if less than 60 months. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Beneficiary: means any person entitled to receive benefits under this chapter. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• 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}
• Board: means the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Retirement System. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Circumstantial evidence: All evidence except eyewitness testimony.
• Constitutional officer: means an officer provided for pursuant to Article VII, § 4 of the Constitution. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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.
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Creditable compensation: means the full compensation payable annually to an employee working full time in his covered position. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Creditable service: means prior service as set forth in § Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Employee: means any teacher, state employee, officer, or employee of a locality participating in the Retirement System. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Employer: means the Commonwealth in the case of a state employee, the local public school board in the case of a teacher, or the political subdivision participating in the Retirement System. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• 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: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Governing instrument: means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with POD designation, security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), or pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan; instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney; or a donative, appointive, or nominative instrument of any other type. See Virginia Code 64.2-2200
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• incorporated towns: as used in this article means only those incorporated towns which have held municipal elections in the ten years preceding the date of the filing of a petition for a referendum pursuant to § Virginia Code 15.2-3520
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint Rules Committee: means those members of the House of Delegates and the Senate designated by the Speaker of the House and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules, respectively, to meet with each other and to act jointly on behalf of the Committee on Rules for each house. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Local officer: means the treasurer, commissioner of the revenue, attorney for the Commonwealth, clerk of a circuit court, or sheriff of any county or city, or deputy or employee of any such officer. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Medical Board: means the boards composed of physicians or other health care professionals as provided by this chapter. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Member: means any person included in the membership of the Retirement System. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Membership service: means service as an employee rendered while a contributing member of the Retirement System except as provided in this chapter. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Normal retirement date: means a member's sixty-fifth birthday. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• 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.
• Per stirpes: The legal means by which the children of a decedent, upon the death of an ancestor at a level above that of the decedent, receive by right of representation the share of the ancestor
• Political subdivision: means any county, city, or town, any political entity, subdivision, branch, or unit of the Commonwealth, or any commission, public authority, or body corporate created by or under an act of the General Assembly specifying the powers, privileges, or authority capable of exercise by the commission, public authority, or body corporate. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Prior service: means service rendered prior to becoming a member of the Retirement System. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Retirement allowance: means the retirement payments to which a member is entitled. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Retirement System: means the Virginia Retirement System. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• 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 service as an employee. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• 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.
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• State employee: means any person who is regularly employed full time on a salaried basis, whose tenure is not restricted as to temporary or provisional appointment, in the service of, and whose compensation is payable, no more often than biweekly, in whole or in part, by the Commonwealth or any department, institution, or agency thereof. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Teacher: means any person who is regularly employed full time on a salaried basis as a professional or clerical employee of a county, city, or other local public school board. See Virginia Code 51.1-124.3
• Tier-city: means an incorporated community within a consolidated county that (i) has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more, (ii) has been designated as a tier-city by the General Assembly, and (iii) has both the powers of a town and such additional powers as may be granted tier-cities by the General Assembly. See Virginia Code 1-252
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.