Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 33 > Chapter 10 > Part IV - Regulation of Public Utilities

• Actuarial equivalent: means a benefit of equal value when computed upon the basis of the mortality tables adopted by the board of trustees plus regular interest. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Adjudication: means formal or informal proceedings for the formulation of a decision or order. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Aggrieved person: means a natural or juridical person who has a real and actual interest that is or may be adversely affected by a final action under this Subtitle. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• 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.
• 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.
• Assistant secretary: means the assistant secretary to whom a given function or responsibility has been allocated by this Subtitle or delegated by the secretary. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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 in receipt of a pension, an annuity, a retirement allowance or other benefits provided for in this Part. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• board: means the Board of Examiners of Bar Pilots for the Port of New Orleans, established in Louisiana Revised Statutes 34:941
• Board of trustees: means and includes the members of the board of trustees of the retirement system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Cable service: means the one-way transmission to subscribers of video programming or other programming service and any subscriber interaction required for the selection or use of video programming or other programming service. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Cable service provider: means any person or entity that provides cable service over a cable system and directly or through one or more affiliates owns a significant interest in such cable system, or who otherwise controls or is responsible for, through any arrangement, the management and operation of such system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Cable system: means a facility consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, reception, and control equipment that is designed to provide cable service which includes video programming and which is provided to multiple subscribers within a community but does not include the following facilities or systems:

              (a) A facility that serves only to retransmit the television signals of one or more television broadcast stations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363

• Certificate: means the certificate of franchise authority issued by the secretary of state to a person or entity to provide cable service or video service in this state. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• 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.
• Commercial mobile service provider: means an interconnected radio communication service carried on between mobile stations or receivers and land stations, and by mobile stations communicating among themselves, provided for profit and to the public or to a substantial portion of the public. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• commission: when used in this Chapter means the Louisiana Public Service Commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1501
• Commission: means the Emergency Response Commission appointed by the governor to implement the mandates of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act passed by the United States Congress in 1986. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• commissioners: when used in this Chapter means the commissioners of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1501
• Compliance order: means an order issued by the secretary or an assistant secretary requiring a respondent to comply with specified provisions of this Subtitle, a rule, or a permit within a specified period of time. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Louisiana Department of Health. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1601
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Department: means the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• 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.
• Deputy secretary: means the deputy secretary for the office of public safety services in the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Discharge: means the placing, releasing, spilling, percolating, draining, pumping, leaking, seeping, emitting, or other escaping of pollutants into the air, waters, subsurface water, or ground as the result of a prior act or omission; or the placing of pollutants into pits, drums, barrels, or similar containers under conditions and circumstances that leaking, seeping, draining, or escaping of the pollutants can be reasonably anticipated. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Employee: means any person regularly employed in any capacity under the control of the Orleans Parish School Board who is not a teacher or whose legal employment does not require the holding of a teacher's certificate, including employees of the public school lunch department, all skilled and unskilled employees of the maintenance department, managers, custodians, subcustodians, and others who are not temporarily employed, and are paid out of funds under the control of the Orleans Parish School Board, who are not now eligible for membership in any other retirement system created or established by the State of Louisiana or any of its political subdivisions. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Environment: includes water, air, and land and the interrelationship which exists among and between water, air, and land and all living things. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• 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.
• Facility: means a pollution source or any public or private property or facility where an activity is conducted which is required to be regulated under this Subtitle and which does or has the potential to do any of the following:

              (a) Emit air contaminants into the atmosphere. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004

• Facility: means the physical premises used by the owner or operator in which the hazardous materials are manufactured, used, or stored. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• 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.
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Franchise: means an initial authorization, or renewal of an authorization, issued by a franchising authority regardless of whether the authorization is designated as a franchise, permit, license, resolution, contract, certificate, agreement, or otherwise, that authorizes the construction and operation of a cable system, or other wireline facilities used to distribute video programming services, in the public rights of way. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Franchise authority: means any governmental entity empowered by federal, state, or local law to grant a franchise for cable service or video service. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Gross revenues: means all revenues received from subscribers for the provision of cable service or video service, including franchise fees and all revenues received from non-subscribers for advertising disseminated through cable service or video service and home shopping services. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Hazardous material: means any substance deemed a hazardous material or a hazardous substance and included on a list adopted by rule by the deputy secretary to include those materials deemed hazardous under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation Liability Act (CERCLA), the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA, Title III U. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Hospitalization: means the admission into a hospital as a patient for an overnight stay or emergency treatment at a hospital to the extent that the owner or operator requested such treatment or becomes aware of such treatment within twenty-four hours of the initiation of the relevant release. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Immediately: means a reasonable period of time after identifying the nature, quantity, and potential off-site impact of a release considering the exigency of the circumstances. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Incumbent service provider: means any cable service provider or video service provider providing cable service or video service in a particular municipality or unincorporated area of a parish on August 15, 2008. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Inventory form: means the reporting form adopted by the department, and completed by owners and operators, which contains certain requested information on hazardous materials and which is used in developing the information system mandated by this Chapter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• 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}
• Lending entity: means the governmental or financial entity providing financing to a water cooperative. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1601
• 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.
• Local governing authority: means the police jury, parish council, the mayor's office of the city of New Orleans or the city-parish of East Baton Rouge or other primary governmental body of a parish. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Local governmental subdivision: means any parish or municipality. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Noise: means the intensity, duration, and the character of sounds from all sources. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2053
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• 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 or operator: means any person, partnership, or corporation in the state including, unless otherwise stated, the state and local government, or any of its agencies, authorities, departments, bureaus, or instrumentalities engaged in business or research operations which use, manufacture, emit, or store a hazardous material in a facility. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Participant: means any employee who is entitled to the beneficial provisions of this retirement system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Person: means any individual, municipality, public or private corporation, partnership, firm, the United States Government, and any agent or subdivision thereof or any other juridical person, which shall include, but not be limited to, trusts, joint stock companies, associations, the state of Louisiana, political subdivisions of the state of Louisiana, commissions, and interstate bodies. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Person: means an individual, proprietorship, corporation, club, or other legal entity. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2053
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• pilot: means a Bar Pilot for the Port of New Orleans, as designated in Louisiana Revised Statutes 34:941
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pollutant: means those elements or compounds defined or identified as hazardous, toxic, or noxious, or as hazardous, solid, or radioactive wastes under this Subtitle and regulations, or by the secretary, consistent with applicable laws and regulations. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• 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.
• Predecessor: shall include but not be limited to any entity that directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with a person receiving, obtaining, or operating under a municipal or parish cable franchise through merger, sale, assignment, restructuring, or any other type of transaction. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Public right of way: means the area on, below, or above a public roadway, highway, street, public sidewalk, alley, or waterway. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• radio common carrier: as used in this Chapter shall not be construed to mean a company operating under the provisions of Title 45, Chapter 8, of the Louisiana Revised Statutes, and no such radio common carrier shall have any of the powers, rights or duties provided for and prescribed by said Title 45, Chapter 8. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1501
• radio common carriers: when used in this Chapter includes every corporation, company, association, partnership and persons and lessees, trustees, or receivers, appointed by any court whatsoever owning, operating or managing a radio common carrier or public "for hire" radio service engaged in the business of providing a service of radio communications between mobile and base stations, between mobile and land stations, including land line telephones, between mobile stations or between land stations, but not engaged in the business of providing a public land line message telephone service or a public message telegraph service. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1501
• range: means an area designed and operated primarily for: persons using or discharging rifles, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, or black powder weapons; archery; air rifles; silhouettes; skeet ranges; trap ranges; or any other similar sport shooting, if such area is designed and constructed in accordance with the then current publication of the National Rifle Association of America, or its successor, entitled "The Range Manual". See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2053
• Reasonably be expected to affect the public safety beyond the boundaries of the facility: means fire, explosion, incident, accident, or cleanup within a facility that may reasonably impact public safety beyond the facility, including but not limited to an impact of such nature as to require shelter-in-place orders, evacuations, immediate response by emergency responders, or off-site road closures. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles) of any hazardous material or substance. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• 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.
• Reportable release: means a release of a regulated hazardous material or substance which causes any injury requiring hospitalization or any fatality, results in a fire or explosion which could reasonably be expected to affect the public safety beyond the boundaries of the facility, or exceeds the reportable quantity when that reportable quantity, as defined pursuant to rules promulgated by the deputy secretary, could be reasonably expected to escape beyond the site of the facility. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Repository: means the local entity designated pursuant to Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Respondent: means the person against whom an enforcement action is directed. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Retail gas station: means a retail facility engaged in selling gasoline or diesel fuel primarily to the public, for use in land-based motor vehicles. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Retirement: means withdrawal from active service with a retirement allowance allowable under the provisions of this Part. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Retirement allowance: means the sum of the annuity and the pension, or any other benefits payable in lieu thereof. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Retirement system: means the corporation known as the Orleans Parish School Employees' Retirement System established in Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• Secretary: means the secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Service: means service rendered by an employee as herein defined. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:951.1
• 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.
• Small business: means a single business establishment employing not more than nine full-time employees and having not more than two million dollars in average annual gross receipts. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Substantial change in use: means the current primary use of the facility no longer represents the activity previously engaged in at the site. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2053
• 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.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Toxic air pollutant: means an air pollutant which, based on scientifically accepted data, is known to cause or can reasonably be anticipated to cause either directly or indirectly through ambient concentrations, exposure levels, bioaccumulation levels, or deposition levels, adverse effects in humans, including but not limited to:

  (i)  Cancer;

  (ii)  Mutagenic, teratogenic, or neurotoxic effects;

  (iii)  Reproductive dysfunction;

  (iv)  Acute health effects; and

  (v)  Chronic health effects. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2053

• Trade secret: means any confidential formula, pattern, process, device, information, or compilation of information, including chemical name or other unique identifier, that is used in an employer's business, and that gives the employer an opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use it. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2363
• 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.
• Variance: means a special authorization granted to a person for a limited period of time which allows that person a specified date for compliance with a requirement pursuant to the provisions of this Subtitle. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Video programming: means programming provided by, or generally considered comparable to programming provided by, a television broadcast station. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Video service: means video programming services provided by a video service provider through wireline facilities located at least in part in the public rights of way without regard to delivery technology, including internet protocol technology. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Video service provider: means any entity providing video service. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1363
• Violation: means a failure to comply with the requirements of this Subtitle, the rules issued under this Subtitle, and conditions of permits under this Subtitle. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:2004
• Water cooperative: means any nonprofit water utility cooperative or corporation that is wholly owned by water user members and eligible to receive financing from a lending entity. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1601
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.