Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 25 > Chapter 51 - General Provisions

• adult person: means a person of the age of 18 years or older. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Attack: means any action or series of actions causing, or which may cause, substantial damage or injury to persons or property by any means, including through biological, chemical, radiological, or nuclear means or through the use of other weapons, technologies, or processes. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803
• 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}
• Buyer: means a person who buys or contracts to buy goods. See Delaware Code Title 6 Sec. 2-103
• Child: means a person who has not reached the age of 18 years. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• 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.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deputy: means an assistant or other subordinate officer who is authorized by law to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of a state or political subdivision office. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803
• Emergency event: means an impending or existing attack, act of terrorism, disease, accident, or other natural or man-made disaster that does 1 or more of the following:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803

• Emergency interim successor: means an individual designated under this chapter to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of an office held by another individual who is unavailable until a successor is appointed or elected and qualified as may be provided by the Delaware Constitution, statutes, charters, or ordinances or until the other individual who is unavailable is able to resume the exercise of the powers and discharge the duties of the office. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803
• 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}
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• 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.
• Office: includes all state and political subdivision offices, the powers and duties of which are defined by the Delaware Constitution, statutes, charters, or ordinances. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803
• Person: means a natural person, partnership (whether general or limited), limited liability company, trust (including a common law trust, business trust, statutory trust, voting trust or any other form of trust), estate, association (including any group, organization, co-tenancy, plan, board, council or committee), corporation, government (including a country, state, county or any other governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality), custodian, nominee or any other individual or entity (or series thereof) in its own or any representative capacity, in each case, whether domestic or foreign. See Delaware Code Title 6 Sec. 17-101
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Political subdivision: includes counties, municipalities, districts, authorities, and other public corporations and entities whether organized and existing under a charter or general law. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803
• 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.
• Seller: means a person who sells or contracts to sell goods. See Delaware Code Title 6 Sec. 2-103
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Unavailable: means either that a vacancy in an office exists and there is no deputy authorized to exercise all of the powers and discharge the duties of the office, or that the lawful incumbent of the office, including any deputy exercising the powers and discharging the duties of an office because of a vacancy, and the lawful incumbent's duly authorized deputy are absent or unable to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the office. See Delaware Code Title 29 Sec. 7803
• United States: includes its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302