Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 7 > Chapter 14 > Subchapter II - Experiment Stations for Propagation of Trees, Shrubs, Vines, and Vegetables

• Adjournment sine die: The end of a legislative session "without day." These adjournments are used to indicate the final adjournment of an annual or the two-year session of legislature.
• 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.
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Budget authority: Authority provided by law to enter into obligations that will result in outlays of Federal funds. Budget authority may be classified by the period of availability (one-year, multiyear, no-year), by the timing of congressional action (current or permanent), or by the manner of determining the amount available (definite or indefinite).
• certificate: means a certificate of accreditation issued under this chapter. See 7 USC 138
• commerce: means commerce between any State, Territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, and any place outside thereof. See 7 USC 92
• 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.
• 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: includes a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the United States. See 1 USC 2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department of Agriculture: means the United States Department of Agriculture. See 7 USC 75
• 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.
• Destructively distilled wood turpentine: means wood turpentine obtained in the destructive distillation of the wood. See 7 USC 92
• 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:
• 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.
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• grain: means corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, flaxseed, sorghum, soybeans, mixed grain, and any other food grains, feed grains, and oilseeds for which standards are established under section 76 of this title. See 7 USC 75
• 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.
• Gum rosin: means rosin remaining after the distillation of gum spirits of turpentine. See 7 USC 92
• Gum spirits of turpentine: means spirits of turpentine made from gum (oleoresin) from a living tree. See 7 USC 92
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• interstate or foreign commerce: means commerce from any State to or through any other State, or to or through any foreign country. See 7 USC 75
• 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.
• laboratory: means any facility or vehicle that is owned by an individual or a public or private entity and is equipped and operated for the purpose of carrying out pesticide residue analysis on agricultural products for commercial purposes. See 7 USC 138
• 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.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Naval stores: means spirits of turpentine and rosin. See 7 USC 92
• 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.
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• official agency: means any State or local governmental agency, or any person, designated by the Secretary pursuant to subsection (f) of section 79 of this title for the conduct of official inspection (other than appeal inspection), or subsection (c) of section 79a of this title for the conduct of official weighing or supervision of weighing (other than appeal weighing). See 7 USC 75
• official inspection: means the determination (by original inspection, and when requested, reinspection and appeal inspection) and the certification, by official inspection personnel of the kind, class, quality, or condition of grain, under standards provided for in this chapter, or the condition of vessels and other carriers or receptacles for the transportation of grain insofar as it may affect the quality or condition of such grain. See 7 USC 75
• official inspection personnel: means persons licensed or otherwise authorized by the Secretary pursuant to section 84 of this title to perform all or specified functions involved in official inspection, official weighing, or supervision of weighing, or in the supervision of official inspection, official weighing or supervision of weighing. See 7 USC 75
• official weighing: means the determination and certification by official inspection personnel of the quantity of a lot of grain under standards provided for in this chapter, based on the actual performance of weighing or the physical supervision thereof, including the physical inspection and testing for accuracy of the weights and scales and the physical inspection of the premises at which the weighing is performed and the monitoring of the discharge of grain into the elevator or conveyance (the terms "officially weigh" and "officially weighed" shall be construed accordingly). See 7 USC 75
• officially inspected: shall be construed accordingly). See 7 USC 75
• Outlays: Outlays are payments made (generally through the issuance of checks or disbursement of cash) to liquidate obligations. Outlays during a fiscal year may be for payment of obligations incurred in prior years or in the same year.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Package: means any container of naval stores, and includes barrel, tank, tank car, or other receptacle. See 7 USC 92
• 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 any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other business entity. See 7 USC 75
• Person: includes partnerships, associations, and corporations, as well as individuals. See 7 USC 92
• pesticide: means any substance that alone, in chemical combination, or in any formulation with one or more substances, is defined as a pesticide in section 136(u) of this title. See 7 USC 138
• 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.
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Private law: A private bill enacted into law. Private laws have restricted applicability, often addressing immigration and naturalization issues affecting individuals.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• 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.
• Rosin: includes gum rosin and wood rosin. See 7 USC 92
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States or delegates of the Secretary. See 7 USC 75
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Agriculture. See 7 USC 138
• 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.
• Spirits of turpentine: includes gum spirits of turpentine and wood turpentine. See 7 USC 92
• State: means any one of the States (including Puerto Rico) or territories or possessions of the United States (including the District of Columbia). See 7 USC 75
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• Steam distilled wood turpentine: means wood turpentine distilled with steam from the oleoresin within or extracted from the wood. See 7 USC 92
• supervision of weighing: means such supervision by official inspection personnel of the grain-weighing process as is determined by the Secretary to be adequate to reasonably assure the integrity and accuracy of the weighing and of certificates which set forth the weight of the grain and such physical inspection by such personnel of the premises at which the grain weighing is performed as will reasonably assure that all the grain intended to be weighed has been weighed and discharged into the elevator or conveyance. See 7 USC 75
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• United States: means the States (including Puerto Rico) and the territories and possessions of the United States (including the District of Columbia). See 7 USC 75
• vehicle: includes every description of carriage or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on land. See 1 USC 4
• Wood rosin: means rosin remaining after the distillation of steam distilled wood turpentine. See 7 USC 92
• Wood turpentine: includes steam distilled wood turpentine and destructively distilled wood turpentine. See 7 USC 92
• writing: includes printing and typewriting and reproductions of visual symbols by photographing, multigraphing, mimeographing, manifolding, or otherwise. See 1 USC 1