Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 261 > GENERAL PROVISIONS

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Aeronautics: means the science and art of flight, including but not limited to transportation by aircraft; the operation, construction, repair, or maintenance of aircraft, aircraft power plants and accessories, including the repair, packing, and maintenance of parachutes; the design, establishment, construction, extension, operation, improvement, repair, or maintenance of airports, or other air navigation facilities; and instruction in flying or ground subjects pertaining thereto. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• 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.
• Air navigation facility: means any facility used in, available for use in, or designed for use in, aid of air navigation, including any structures, mechanisms, light, beacons, markers, communicating systems, or other instrumentalities, or devices used or useful as an aid, or constituting an advantage or convenience, to the safe taking-off, navigation, and landing of aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an airport, and any combination of any or all of such facilities. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Aircraft: means any contrivance now known or hereafter invented, used or designed for navigation of or flight in the air. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Airman: means any individual who engages, as the person in command, or as pilot, mechanic, or member of the crew, in the navigation of aircraft while under way, and any individual who is directly in charge of the inspection, maintenance, overhauling, or repair of aircraft engines, airframes, propellers, or appliances; and any individual who serves in the capacity of aircraft dispatcher, or air-traffic control-tower operator; but does not include any individual employed outside the United States, and its territories and possessions, or any individual employed by a manufacturer of aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, or appliances to perform duties as inspector or mechanic in connection therewith, or any individual performing inspection or mechanical duties in connection with aircraft owned or operated by the individual. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Airport: means any area of land or water which is used, or intended for use, for the landing and takeoff of aircraft, and any appurtenant areas which are used, or intended for use, for airport buildings or other airport facilities or rights-of-way, including approaches, together with all airport buildings and facilities located thereon. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• 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.
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assessment: means funds collected by an association from association members to operate and manage the association, maintain property within the planned community for the common use or benefit of association members, or provide services to association members. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Association: means a nonprofit, incorporated, or unincorporated organization:

  (1) Upon which responsibilities are imposed and to which authority is granted in a declaration that governs a planned community;

  (2) That is a planned community association as defined under section 607-14; or

  (3) That is a homeowners' association, in which:

  (A) The voting membership is made up of ten or more parcel owners or their proxies, or a combination thereof; and

  (B) Assessments may be imposed that, if unpaid, may become a lien on the parcel. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2

• Association documents: means the articles of incorporation or other document creating the association, if any, the bylaws of the association, the declaration or similar organizational documents and any exhibits thereto, any rules related to use of common areas, architectural control, maintenance of units, restrictions on the use of units, or payment of money as a regular assessment or otherwise in connection with the provisions, maintenance, or services for the benefit of some or all of the units, the owners, or occupants of the units or the common areas, as well as any amendments made to the foregoing documents. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• 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}
• board: means the executive board or other body, regardless of name, designated in the association documents to act on behalf of the association. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• Common area: means real property within a planned community which is owned or leased by the association or is otherwise available for the use of its members or designated as common area in or pursuant to the declaration. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporate equity: means the excess of the current fair market value of the corporation's assets, including its real property, over the sum of the current transfer values of all shares or membership interests, reduced by the principal balance of outstanding encumbrances upon the corporate real property as a whole. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421H-1
• corporation: means a cooperative housing corporation that:
  (1) Has one and only one class of stock outstanding;
  (2) Allows each tenant shareholder to occupy a dwelling unit for dwelling purposes solely by reason of the tenant shareholder's ownership of stock in the corporation;
  (3) Does not allow a shareholder to receive, either conditionally or unconditionally, any distributions from the corporation except when there is a complete or partial liquidation of the corporation; provided that this paragraph does not apply to earnings and profits of the corporation; and
  (4) Has eighty per cent or more of the gross income for the taxable year in which taxes are paid or incurred pursuant to 26 United States Code § 216(A) derived from tenant shareholders. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421I-1
• 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.
• county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
• Criminal history record check: means an examination of an individual's criminal history records by means including, but not limited to, fingerprint analysis and name inquiry into state and national criminal history record files. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Criminal history record information: means criminal history information received from state and national criminal history record checks. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Declaration: means any recorded association document, however denominated, that imposes obligations on the owners of the units with respect to maintenance or operational responsibilities for the common area, architectural control, maintenance of units, or restrictions on the use of units. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the director of transportation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• 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.
• 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}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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}
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member: means the person or persons owning a unit or having the right of occupancy of a unit under a recorded lease having a term of twenty or more years from its commencement date; or anyone included in the definition of a member under the association documents, including the developer, whether or not the developer owns a unit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• month: means a calendar month; and the word "year" a calendar year. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-20
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Municipal: means pertaining to a municipality as herein defined. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Municipality: means any county or other political subdivision or public corporation of the State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• 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.
• 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, firm, corporation, partnership, association, trust or other legal entity, or any combination thereof. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• Person: means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic; and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or other similar representative thereof. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Planned community: means one of the following:

  (1) Real property, other than a condominium or a cooperative housing corporation or a time share plan, that is subject to a planned community association as defined under section 607-14; or

  (2) A common interest community, other than a condominium or a cooperative housing corporation or a time share plan, which includes all of the following characteristics:

  (A) Real property subject to a recorded declaration placing restrictions and obligations on the owners of the real property that are enforced or enforceable by a separate entity, the association, established for that purpose whether or not mentioned in the declaration, and:

  (i) That owns and maintains certain property within the planned community for the common use or benefit, or both, of the owners of units within the planned community;

  (ii) That is obligated to maintain certain property it does not own within the planned community for the common use or benefit, or both, of the owners of units within the planned community; or

  (iii) That is obligated to provide services to any such owners or units;

  (B) Individual owners own separate units that are part of a planned community at least some of which are improved by or are to be improved by residential dwellings;

  (C) Owners have automatic and non-severable membership in an association by virtue of ownership of units within the planned community; and

  (D) Owners, other than a master developer or declarant, are obligated by any association document to pay mandatory assessments by virtue of ownership of a unit within the planned community. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2

• Police officer: means a police officer and any other state or county officer charged with the enforcement of state laws. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 261-1
• 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}
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recorded: means recorded or filed in the bureau of conveyances of the State or in the office of the assistant registrar of the land court of the State, as appropriate. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Unit: means a physical portion of the planned community designated for separate ownership or occupancy. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 421J-2