Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 18 > Chapter 57 - Reciprocal Insurers

• 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.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney: as used in this chapter , refers to the attorney-in-fact of a reciprocal insurer. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 5705
• 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.
• bargaining unit: means a group of police officers or firefighters designated by the Public Employment Relations Board as appropriate for representation by an employee organization for purposes of collective bargaining. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Binding interest arbitration: means the procedure by which the Public Employment Relations Board shall make written findings of fact and a decision for final and binding resolution of an impasse arising out of collective bargaining. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Board: means the Public Employment Relations Board established by § 4006 of Title 14 and made applicable to this chapter by § 1306 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Board: means the Industrial Accident Board. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• Certification: means official recognition by the Board, following a secret-ballot election, that an employee organization is the exclusive representative for all employees in an appropriate bargaining unit. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Child: includes stepchildren and adopted children and children to whom the deceased stood in loco parentis if members of the decedent's household at the time of the decedent's death, and includes posthumous children but not married children. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• Collective bargaining: means the performance of the mutual obligation of a public employer through its designated representatives and the exclusive bargaining representative to confer and negotiate in good faith with respect to terms and conditions of employment, and to execute a written contract incorporating any agreements reached. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• 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.
• Compensable occupational diseases: includes all occupational diseases arising out of and in the course of employment only when the exposure stated in connection therewith has occurred during employment. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Decertification: means the withdrawal by the Board of an employee organization's official designation as exclusive representative following a decertification election which shows that the exclusive representative no longer has the support of a majority of the members in an appropriate bargaining unit. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Department: means the Department of Labor. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Employee: means every person in service of any corporation (private, public, municipal or quasi-public), association, firm or person, excepting those employees excluded by this subchapter, under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, or performing services for a valuable consideration, excluding spouse and minor children of a farm employer unless the spouse or minor child is a bona fide employee of a farm employer and is named in an endorsement to the farm employer's contract of insurance, and excluding any person whose employment is casual and not in the regular course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of his or her employer, and not including persons to whom articles or materials are furnished or repaired, or adopted for sale in the worker's own home, or on the premises not under the control or management of the employer. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• employee: means any police officer or firefighter employed by a public employer except those determined by the Board to be inappropriate for inclusion in the bargaining unit; provided, however, that for the purposes of this chapter with respect to any state employee covered under the State Merit System, position classification, health care and other benefit programs established pursuant to Chapters 52 and 96 of Title 29, workers' compensation, disability programs and pension programs shall not be deemed to be compensation. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Employee organization: means any organization which admits to membership police officers or firefighters employed by a public employer and which has as a purpose the representation of such employees in collective bargaining, and includes any person acting as an officer, representative or agent of said organization. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• employees: shall include each and every person employed by the public employer except:

  A. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602

• Employer: includes all those who employ others unless they are excluded from the application of this chapter by any provision of this subchapter, and if the employer is insured, the term shall include the insurer as far as practicable; employer shall also include the governing body for which employable relief recipients are assigned work under §§ 901-905 of Title 31. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• employer: includes the Town of Delmar, Delaware. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• 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.
• exclusive representative: means the employee organization which as a result of certification by the Board has the right and responsibility to be the collective bargaining agent of all employees in that bargaining unit. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Hearing officer: means a hearing officer appointed pursuant to § 2301B of this title. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• Impasse: means the failure of a public employer and the exclusive bargaining representative to reach agreement in the course of collective bargaining. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Ionizing radiation: means any particulate or electromagnetic radiation capable of producing ions directly or indirectly in its passage through matter. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
• 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.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Mediation: means an effort by an impartial third-party confidentially to assist in reconciling an impasse between the public employer and the exclusive bargaining representative regarding terms and conditions of employment. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• 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.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Strike: means a public employee's failure, in concerted action with others, to report for duty, or the public employee's wilful absence from the public employee's position, or the public employee's stoppage or deliberate slowing down of work, or the public employee's withholding in whole or in part from the full, faithful and proper performance of the public employee's duties of employment, or the public employee's involvement in a concerted interruption of operations of a public employer for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation rights, privileges or obligations of public employment; however, nothing shall limit or impair the right of any public employee to lawfully express or communicate a complaint or opinion on any matter related to terms and conditions of employment. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Terms and conditions of employment: means matters concerning or related to wages, salaries, hours, grievance procedures and working conditions; provided, however, that such term shall not include those matters determined by this chapter or any other law of the State to be within the exclusive prerogative of the public employer. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 1602
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.