Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 342H > Part I - Definitions and General Provisions

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Common area: means real property that is designated as common area in or pursuant to a declaration, that is owned or leased by the association under the declaration, or that is otherwise available for the use of members of the association. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-1
• Condominium project: means a real estate condominium project; or a plan or project whereby a condominium of two or more units located within the condominium property regime have been sold or leased or are offered or proposed to be offered for sale or lease. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-1
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Cooperative housing corporation: means a corporation having only one class of stock outstanding, each of the stockholders of which is entitled by reason of the shareholder's ownership of stock in the corporation to occupy for dwelling purposes a dwelling unit in a building owned or leased by the corporation, and no stockholder of which is entitled, either conditionally or unconditionally, to receive any distribution not out of earnings and profits of the corporation except in a complete or partial liquidation of the corporation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-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
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Declaration: means any recorded document, however denominated, in favor of or enforceable by a cooperative housing corporation, an association of owners of a condominium project, or other nonprofit, incorporated or unincorporated association, that restricts or conditions the use of the real property being offered for sale, or imposes obligations on the owner of the residential real property being offered for sale with respect to maintenance or operational responsibility for the common areas, architectural control, maintenance of the residential real property being offered for sale, or services for the benefit of the residential real property being offered for sale or other property subject to the declaration including the common areas. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-1
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the director of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Disclosure statement: means a written statement prepared by the seller, or at the seller's direction, that purports to fully and accurately disclose all material facts relating to the residential real property being offered for sale that:

  (1) Are within the knowledge or control of the seller;

  (2) Can be observed from visible, accessible areas; or

  (3) Are required to be disclosed under sections 508D-4. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-1

• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Disposal: means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste onto any land or water so that such solid waste, or any constituent thereof, may enter the environment, be emitted into the air, or discharged into any water, including ground waters. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• 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}
• 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}
• Material fact: means any fact, defect, or condition, past or present, that would be expected to measurably affect the value to a reasonable person of the residential real property being offered for sale. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-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.
• Party: means each person or agency named as party or properly entitled to be a party in any court or agency proceeding. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Permit: means written authorization from the director to construct, modify, and operate any solid waste management system or any component of any solid waste management system. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Person: means any individual, partnership, firm, association, public or private corporation, federal agency, the State or any of its political subdivisions, trust, estate, or any other legal entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Petroleum: means any petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof, that is liquid at standard temperature and pressure (60 degrees Fahrenheit and 14. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Pollution: means solid waste pollution. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Real estate purchase contract: means a contract, as it may be amended, by which a seller agrees to sell and a buyer agrees to buy residential real property which shall include a deposit, receipt, offer, acceptance, or other similar agreement for the sale or lease with option to buy. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recycling: means the collection, separation, recovery, and sale or reuse of secondary resources that would otherwise be disposed of as municipal solid waste, and is an integral part of a manufacturing process aimed at producing a marketable product made of postconsumer material. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Residential real property: means fee simple or leasehold real property on which currently is situated:

  (1) From one to four dwelling units; or

  (2) A residential condominium or cooperative apartment, the primary use of which is occupancy as a residence. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 508D-1

• Right of rescission: Right to cancel, within three business days, a contract that uses the home of a person as collateral, except in the case of a first mortgage loan. There is no fee to the borrower, who receives a full refund of all fees paid. The right of rescission is guaranteed by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). ^{Source: OCC}
• Secondary resources: means postconsumer material collected and processed for feedstock in a manufacturing process. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• 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.
• Solid waste: means garbage, refuse, and other discarded materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, sludge from waste treatment plants and water supply treatment plants, and residues from air pollution control facilities and community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage or other substances in water sources such as silt, dissolved or suspended solids in industrial waste water effluents, dissolved materials in irrigation return flows, or other common water pollutants, or source, special nuclear, or by-product material as defined by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Solid waste management system: means a system for the storage, processing, treatment, transfer, or disposal of solid waste. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Variance: means special written authorization from the director to do an act that deviates from applicable standards or from the requirements of rules adopted under this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1
• Waste: means sewage, industrial and agricultural matter, and all other liquid, gaseous, or solid substance, including radioactive substance, whether treated or not, which may pollute or tend to pollute the atmosphere, lands or waters of this State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342H-1