Terms Used In Alaska Statutes > Title 38 > Chapter 5 - Alaska Land Act

• acquired land: means land belonging to the state including tide, submerged, and shoreland which has been obtained by escheat, purchase, or any means other than by general land grant. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• 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.
• agricultural land: means land chiefly valuable for agricultural purposes. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• commissioner: means the commissioner of natural resources. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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.
• 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.
• department: means the Department of Natural Resources. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• director: means the director of the division of lands of the Department of Natural Resources. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• 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.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• gas or electric utility: includes an electric cooperative organized under Alaska Stat. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.180
• geothermal resources: means the natural heat of the earth at temperatures greater than 120 degrees Celsius, measured at the point where the highest-temperature resources encountered enter or contact a well or other resource extraction device, and includes
  (A) the energy, including pressure, in whatever form present in, resulting from, created by, or that may be extracted from that natural heat. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• grazing land: means land chiefly valuable for grazing purposes. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• in-state refiner: means a person engaged in the manufacture of refined petroleum products in the state. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.180
• initial project term: means the duration sufficient to support an investment decision by the sponsors of a North Slope natural gas project to permit realization of a competitive economic return, to enable necessary financing, and to support agreements for the sale of hydrocarbons transported on a North Slope natural gas project. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• 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.
• land: means all land, including shoreland, tideland , and submerged land, or resources belonging to or acquired by the state. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• 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}
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• lieu and indemnity land: means land which the state is entitled to select under the provisions of the Act of March 4, 1915, 38 Stat. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• manufacturer of agricultural chemicals: means a person that is a business entity primarily engaging in the manufacturing of nitrogenous and phosphatic based fertilizers, mixed fertilizers, pesticides, and similar chemicals for agricultural purposes. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.180
• mineral land: means land prospectively valuable for mineral deposits. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• multiple use: has the meaning given in Alaska Stat. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• municipality: means a political subdivision incorporated under the laws of the state that is a home rule or general law city, a home rule or general law borough, or a unified municipality. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• navigable water: means any water of the state forming a river, stream, lake, pond, slough, creek, bay, sound, estuary, inlet, strait, passage, canal, sea or ocean, or any other body of water or waterway within the territorial limits of the state or subject to its jurisdiction that is navigable in fact in any season, whether in a frozen or liquid state, and for any useful public purpose, including water suitable for commercial navigation, floating of logs, landing and takeoff of aircraft, and public boating, trapping, hunting waterfowl and aquatic animals, fishing, or other public recreational purposes. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• nonconventional gas: means coal bed methane, gas contained in shales, or gas hydrates. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• North Slope natural gas project: means a project to produce or transport natural gas from state oil and gas and gas only leases that include land north of 68 degrees North latitude for transport in a gaseous state from the North Slope. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• 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.
• 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.
• peace officer: means
  (A) an officer of the state troopers. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, organization, business trust, or society, as well as a natural person. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• price established in a contract between the lessee and the in-state refiner: includes tax reimbursement amounts, deliverability and other charges, and other forms of consideration paid by the in-state refiner, as appropriate, under the contract. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.180
• price for the gas established in the contract: includes tax reimbursement amounts, deliverability and other charges, and other forms of consideration paid by the gas or electric utility or by the manufacturer of agricultural chemicals, as appropriate, under the contract. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.180
• project services: means services provided by a gas treatment plant, pipeline, liquefaction facility, or marine terminal, marine transportation services, or other services necessary to transport natural gas to market. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• property: includes real and personal property. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• public water: means navigable water and all other water, whether inland or coastal, fresh or salt, that is reasonably suitable for public use and utility, habitat for fish and wildlife in which there is a public interest, or migration and spawning of fish in which there is a public interest. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• 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.
• shoreland: means land belonging to the state which is covered by nontidal water that is navigable under the laws of the United States up to ordinary high water mark as modified by accretion, erosion, or reliction. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• state: means the State of Alaska unless applied to the different parts of the United States and in the latter case it includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• submerged land: means land covered by tidal water between the line of mean low water and seaward to a distance of three geographical miles or further as may hereafter be properly claimed by the state. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• tideland: means land that is periodically covered by tidal water between the elevation of mean high water and mean low water. See Alaska Statutes 38.05.965
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• writing: includes printing. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060