Terms Used In California Codes > Probate Code > Division 3 > Part 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS

• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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
• 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 a person to whom a donative transfer of property is made or that person's successor in interest, and:

  California Probate Code 24

• Child: means any individual under 19 years of age. See California Insurance Code 10950
• City: includes "city and county" and "incorporated town. See California Streets and Highways Code 15
• Claim: means a demand for payment for any of the following, whether due, not due, accrued or not accrued, or contingent, and whether liquidated or unliquidated:

  California Probate Code 9000

• commission: means the California Transportation Commission. See California Streets and Highways Code 22
• Commissioner: means the Insurance Commissioner of this State. See California Insurance Code 20
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Conservatee: includes a limited conservatee. See California Probate Code 29
• Conservator: includes a limited conservator. See California Probate Code 30
• Construction: includes :

  California Streets and Highways Code 29

• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• County: includes "city and county. See California Streets and Highways Code 14
• Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. ^{Source: OCC}
• Creditor: means a person who may have a claim against estate property. See California Probate Code 9000
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devisee: means any person designated in a will to receive a devise. See California Probate Code 34
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Domestic partner: means one of two persons who have filed a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the Secretary of State pursuant to Division 2. See California Probate Code 37
• 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}
• 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.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: means personal representative, trustee, guardian, conservator, attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney, custodian under the California Uniform Transfer To Minors Act (Part 9 (commencing with Section 3900) of Division 4), or other legal representative subject to this code. See California Probate Code 39
• Financial institution: means a state or national bank, state or federal savings and loan association or credit union, or like organization. See California Probate Code 40
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Heir: means any person, including the surviving spouse, who is entitled to take property of the decedent by intestate succession under this code. See California Probate Code 44
• Initial open enrollment period: means the open enrollment period beginning on January 1, 2011, and ending 60 days thereafter. See California Insurance Code 10950
• Instrument: means a will, a document establishing or modifying a trust, a deed, or any other writing that designates a beneficiary or makes a donative transfer of property. See California Probate Code 45
• Insurer: means any person, firm, association, or corporation admitted by the commissioner as an insurer in this state. See California Insurance Code 1781.2
• interested person: includes any of the following:

  California Probate Code 48

• 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.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• licensee: means an insurer, agent, broker, or any other person who is required to be licensed by the department. See California Insurance Code 38.6
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Life and disability insurance analyst: means a person who, for a fee or compensation of any kind, paid by or derived from any person or source other than an insurer, advises, purports to advise, or offers to advise any person insured under, named as beneficiary of, or having any interest in, a life or disability insurance contract, in any manner concerning that contract or his or her rights in respect thereto. See California Insurance Code 32.5
• maintenance: includes any of the following:

  California Streets and Highways Code 27

• 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.
• Open enrollment period: means the annual open enrollment period subsequent to the initial open enrollment period, applicable to each individual child that is the month of the child's birth date. See California Insurance Code 10950
• Person: means any person, association, organization, partnership, business trust, limited liability company, or corporation. See California Insurance Code 19
• Person: means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, or other entity. See California Probate Code 56
• Personal representative: means executor, administrator, administrator with the will annexed, special administrator, successor personal representative, public administrator acting pursuant to Section 7660, or a person who performs substantially the same function under the law of another jurisdiction governing the person's status. See California Probate Code 58
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Power of termination: includes the power created in a transferee to terminate a fee simple estate in real property to enforce a restriction on the use of the real property in the form of a limitation or condition subsequent to which the fee simple estate is subject, whether the power is characterized in the instrument that creates or evidences it as an executory interest, executory limitation, or otherwise, and includes the interest known at common law as an executory interest preceded by a fee simple determinable. See California Civil Code 885.010
• PPACA: means the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-152), and any subsequent rules or regulations issued pursuant to that law. See California Insurance Code 10950
• Probate: Proving a will
• Professional fiduciary: means a person who is a professional fiduciary as defined under subdivision (f) of §. See California Probate Code 60.1
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership and includes both real and personal property and any interest therein. See California Probate Code 62
• Real property: includes a leasehold interest in real property. See California Probate Code 68
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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}
• Reinsurance intermediary: means a reinsurance intermediary-broker or a reinsurance intermediary-manager. See California Insurance Code 1781.2
• Reinsurer: means any person, firm, association, or corporation admitted in this state as an insurer with the authority to assume reinsurance. See California Insurance Code 1781.2
• Resident: means residing in this State, "nonresident" means not residing in this State. See California Insurance Code 30
• 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: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Insurance Code 28
• State: includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See California Probate Code 74
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transferee: means the beneficiary, donee, or other recipient of an interest transferred by an instrument. See California Probate Code 81.5
• Trust: includes the following:

  California Probate Code 82

• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Will: includes codicil and any testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor or revokes or revises another will. See California Probate Code 88