Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 7 > Chapter 74 > Subchapter I - 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.
• Ancillary equipment: means any device including, but not limited to, such devices as piping, fittings, flanges, valves and pumps, that are used to distribute, meter or control the flow of petroleum or hazardous substances from an underground storage tank. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• 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}
• Borrower: means a person obtaining or desiring to obtain a mortgage loan. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 2101
• Commissioner: means the State Bank Commissioner. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 2101
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• Corrective action: means the sequence of actions, or process, that includes confirming a release, site assessment, interim remedial action, remedial action, monitoring, and termination of remedial action. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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 and Environmental Control. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• dollars: means lawful money of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• 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}
• 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
• Facility: means any location or part thereof that contains or had previously contained 1 or more underground storage tanks. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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.
• Fiduciary: means :

  a. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402

• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary capacity: means the capacity of a person in holding title to a facility, or otherwise having control of or an interest in the facility, pursuant to the exercise of the responsibilities of the person as a fiduciary. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• 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.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fund: means the Delaware Underground Petroleum Storage Tank Response Fund. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Heating fuels: means a type of fuel oil that is 1 of 8 technical grades. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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}
• Lender: means :

  a. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402

• 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.
• Month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgage loan: means an extension of credit secured by a first or secondary mortgage on any 1-to-4 family residential owner-occupied property intended for personal, family or household purposes, which is:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 2101

• Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. ^{Source: OCC}
• Mortgage loan broker: means a person who (i) in the ordinary course of business, for compensation or gain, or in the expectation of compensation or gain, either directly or indirectly, negotiates or offers to negotiate, or arranges or solicits, or offers to arrange or solicit, a mortgage loan on behalf of a borrower, or (ii) holds himself out as being able to serve as an agent for any person in an attempt to obtain a mortgage loan; or (iii) holds himself or herself out as being able to serve as an agent or independent contractor to negotiate the terms or conditions of a mortgage loan on behalf of a lender (but who is not a person employed as an employee or agent of the lender). See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 2101
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Operator: means any person in control of, or having responsibility for, the daily operation of the underground storage tank system. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Out of service: means a storage system which:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402

• Owner: means :

  a. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402

• participate in management: means actually participating in the management or operational affairs of an underground storage tank or facility, but does not include merely having the capacity to influence, or the unexercised right to control, an underground storage tank or facility operations. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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.
• Person: means an individual, corporation, partnership or any other group of individuals however organized. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 2101
• Person: means any individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, federal agency, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state or any interstate body. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• person licensed: means any person duly licensed or regulated by the Commissioner pursuant to this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 2101
• 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.
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: is synonymous with the phrase "lands, tenements and hereditaments. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Regulated substance: means :

  a. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402

• Release: means any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, leaching or disposing into groundwater, surface water or soils. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Removal: means the process of removing and disposing of an underground storage tank system, through the use of prescribed techniques for the purging of residues and vapors and removal of the vessel from the ground. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Responsible party: means any person who:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402

• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control or a duly authorized designee. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Security interest: means an interest in a petroleum UST or UST system or in a facility or property on which a petroleum UST or UST system is located, created or established for the purpose of securing a loan or other obligation. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• 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 Delaware. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Underground storage tank: means a containment vessel, including underground pipes connected thereto, which is used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances, and the volume of which, including the volume of the underground pipes connected thereto, is 10 per centum or more beneath the surface of the ground. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• Underground storage tank system: means an underground storage tank and its associated ancillary equipment and containment system, if any. See Delaware Code Title 7 Sec. 7402
• United States: includes its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Year: means a calendar year, and is equivalent to the words "year of our Lord. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302