Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 680 > Part 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Agent: means a person granted authority to act for a principal under a power of attorney, whether denominated an agent, attorney in fact, or otherwise. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• 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.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Another state: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Apparent owner: means the person whose name appears on the records of the holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Audit: means an action or proceeding to examine and verify a person's records, books, accounts, and other documents to ascertain and determine compliance with this chapter. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Banking organization: means any and all banks, trust companies, private bankers, savings banks, industrial banks, safe-deposit companies, savings and loan associations, credit unions, and investment companies in this state, organized under or subject to the laws of this state or of the United States, including entities organized under Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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}
• Broker-dealer: means a broker-dealer registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission if the broker-dealer is acting in that capacity. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Business association: means any for-profit or nonprofit corporation other than a public corporation; joint stock company; investment company; unincorporated association or association of two or more individuals for business purposes, whether or not for profit; partnership; joint venture; limited liability company; sole proprietorship; business trust; trust company; land bank; safe-deposit company; safekeeping depository; financial organization; insurance company; federally chartered entity; utility company; or other business entity, whether or not for profit. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Claimant: means the person on whose behalf a claim is filed. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Commercial unit: means such a unit of goods as by commercial usage is a single whole for purposes of lease and division of which materially impairs its character or value on the market or in use. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer lease: means a lease that a lessor regularly engaged in the business of leasing or selling makes to a lessee who is an individual and who takes under the lease primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose if the total payments to be made under the lease contract, excluding payments for options to renew or buy, do not exceed $25,000. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Durable: means , with respect to a power of attorney, not terminated by the principal's incapacity. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Electronic: means technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• 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
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Finance lease: means a lease with respect to which:
  1. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Financial organization: means a savings association, savings and loan association, savings bank, industrial bank, bank, banking organization, trust company, international bank agency, cooperative bank, building and loan association, or credit union. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Goods: means all things that are movable at the time of identification to the lease contract, or are fixtures (s. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Holder: means :
  (a) A person who is in possession or control or has custody of property or the rights to property belonging to another; is indebted to another on an obligation; or is obligated to hold for the account of, or to deliver or pay to, the owner, property subject to this chapter; or
  (b) A trustee in case of a trust. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Incapacity: means the inability of an individual to take those actions necessary to obtain, administer, and dispose of real and personal property, intangible property, business property, benefits, and income. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Insurance company: means an association, corporation, or fraternal or mutual benefit organization, whether for profit or not for profit, which is engaged in providing insurance coverage. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Intangible property: includes , by way of illustration and not limitation:
  (a) Moneys, checks, virtual currency, drafts, deposits, interest, dividends, and income. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• 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.
• Knowledge: means a person has actual knowledge of the fact, has received a notice or notification of the fact, or has reason to know the fact from all other facts and circumstances known to the person at the time in question. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• last known address: includes any partial description of the location of the apparent owner sufficient to establish the apparent owner was a resident of this state at the time of last contact with the apparent owner or at the time the property became due and payable. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Lawful charges: means charges against dormant accounts that are authorized by statute for the purpose of offsetting the costs of maintaining the dormant account. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Lease: means a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale, including a sale on approval or a sale or return, or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• 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}
• Lease agreement: means the bargain, with respect to the lease, of the lessor and the lessee in fact as found in their language or by implication from other circumstances including course of dealing or usage of trade or course of performance as provided in this chapter. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lease contract: means the total legal obligation that results from the lease agreement as affected by this chapter and any other applicable rules of law. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Leasehold interest: means the interest of the lessor or the lessee under a lease contract. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lessee: means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lessor: means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• Owner: means a person, or the person's legal representative, entitled to receive or having a legal or equitable interest in or claim against property subject to this chapter; a depositor in the case of a deposit; a beneficiary in the case of a trust or a deposit in trust; or a payee in the case of a negotiable instrument or other intangible property. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Person: means an individual; estate; business association; corporation; firm; association; joint adventure; partnership; government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or any other legal or commercial entity. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• 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}
• Power of attorney: means a writing that grants authority to an agent to act in the place of the principal, whether or not the term is used in that writing. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Presently exercisable general power of appointment: means , with respect to property or a property interest subject to a power of appointment, power exercisable at the time in question to vest absolute ownership in the principal individually, the principal's estate, the principal's creditors, or the creditors of the principal's estate. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Principal: means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest or right therein. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Public corporation: means a corporation created by the state, founded and owned in the public interest, supported by public funds, and governed by those deriving their power from the state. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• 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.
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• 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.
• Sign: means having present intent to authenticate or adopt a record to:
  (a) Execute by signature or mark; or
  (b) Attach to, or logically associate with the record an electronic sound, symbol, or process. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Sublease: means a lease of goods the right to possession and use of which was acquired by the lessor as a lessee under an existing lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Third person: means any person other than the principal, or the agent in the agent's capacity as agent. See Florida Statutes 709.2102
• Trust instrument: means a trust instrument as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: means any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States of America. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Utility: means a person who owns or operates, for public use, any plant, equipment, property, franchise, or license for the transmission of communications or the production, storage, transmission, sale, delivery, or furnishing of electricity, water, steam, or gas. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Virtual currency: means digital units of exchange that:
  1. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01