Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 48 > Chapter 4 > Article 2 - General Public Improvements and Improvement Bonds

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• 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.
• assessment roll: means a special assessment made under the provisions of this article. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Block: means any parcel of ground, whether regular or irregular, which is bounded by streets, or by one or more streets and by one or more boundary lines of the city or town. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• city: includes incorporated cities and towns. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Clerk: includes any person or official who performs the duties of clerk of the city or town. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contractor: includes the contractor's personal representative or assignee. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Delinquency: means delinquency in the payment of an assessment made under the provisions of this article. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Designated area: means an area of the municipality which is either designated pursuant to section 36-1479 as a slum or blighted area or designated as a pocket of poverty or a neighborhood strategy area by the United States department of housing and urban development, pursuant to title I of the housing and community development act of 1977 as amended (42 United States Code §§ 5301 through 5320) and the department of housing and urban development act (42 United States Code § 3535(d)). See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Engineer: includes any person who, under whatever official name, is the civil engineer or surveyor of the city or town, and where there is no elected or appointed official, then the engineer is the person who may be appointed or employed by the council to perform the duties required of an engineer under the provisions of this article. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• 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
• 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}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• governing body: includes and means the body or board which by law is constituted the legislative department of an incorporated city or town. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Grantee: includes every person to whom an estate or interest in real property passes, in or by a deed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• improvement: includes any or all of the improvements mentioned and authorized to be made in this and article 1 of this chapter and the construction, reconstruction and repair of all or any portion of the improvements, and all labor, services, incidental expenses and material necessary or incidental to the construction, reconstruction or repair. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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}
• 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}
• 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.
• Lighting plants: includes electric light plants, electric power plants, gas plants, distribution systems, poles, parts, pipes, conduits, wires, tanks, reservoirs, generators for gas or electricity, transmission lines, towers, lamps, transformers of every character, machinery, apparatus, equipment and all appliances and structures necessary or incidental to the construction, installation or operation of a complete municipal electric light, power and gas plant and distribution system, placed on the streets improved, though extended beyond. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Lot: includes any portion, piece, parcel or subdivision of land, and includes property owned or controlled by any person as a railroad right-of-way. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Mayor: includes the chairman or president of the governing body. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Owner: means the person in whom, on the day the action or proceeding is commenced, appears the legal title to the lot by deed recorded in the recorder's office, or the person in possession of the lot under claim of title, or exercising acts of ownership over the lot for the person, or as the personal representative of the owner. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Railroad: includes street railroad and interurban railroad. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• 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.
• Sewers: includes tunnels, excavations, ditches, drains, conduits, channels, outlets, outfalls, cesspools, manholes, catch basins, flush tanks, septic tanks, connecting sewers of every character, machinery, apparatus, equipment and all appliances and structures necessary or incidental to the construction, installation or operation of a complete sewer system, for either sanitary or drainage purposes. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Street: includes avenues, alleys, highways, lanes, crossings, intersections, courts, places and grounds now open or dedicated or hereafter opened or dedicated to public use, and public ways. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• superintendent: includes any person who, under whatever official name, is charged with the care or supervision of the streets of the city or town. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Treasurer: includes any person who, under whatever official name, is the custodian of the funds of the city or town. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Waterworks: includes pipes, hydrants, reservoirs, wells, pumps, pumping plants, conduits, settling basins, filtering plants of every character, machinery, apparatus, equipment and all appliances and structures necessary or incidental to the construction, installation or operation of a complete municipal waterworks system, for fire protection, or for domestic irrigation, mechanical or power purposes, placed on the streets improved, though extended beyond. See Arizona Laws 48-571
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215