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

• Abatement: means any measure or set of measures designed to permanently eliminate asbestos or lead-based paint hazards, including but not limited to removal, enclosure, encapsulation, or disposal. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Administrator: means the director of finance. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• 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.
• 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.
• Apparent owner: means a person whose name appears on the records of a holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Asbestos: means the asbestiform varieties of serpentine (chrysotile), riebeckite (crocidolite), cummingtonite-grunerite (amosite), anthophyllite, actinolite, and tremolite. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• 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}
• boarder: means a tenant occupying a dwelling unit:

  (1) [That] lacks at least one major bathroom or kitchen facility, such as a toilet, refrigerator, or stove[;]

  (2) In a building where one or more such major facilities are supplied to be used in common by the occupants of the tenant's dwelling unit and by the occupants of one or more other dwelling units[;] and

  (3) In a building in which the landlord resides. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8

• Business association: means a corporation, joint stock company, investment company, partnership, unincorporated association, joint venture, limited liability company, business trust, trust company, safe deposit company, financial organization, insurance company, mutual fund, utility, or other business entity consisting of one or more persons, whether or not for profit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Director: means the director of health or a duly authorized agent, officer, or inspector. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Domicile: means the state of incorporation of a corporation and the state of the principal place of business of a holder other than a corporation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Dwelling unit: means a structure, or part of a structure, which is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by one person or by two or more persons maintaining a common household, to the exclusion of all others. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Emission: means the act of releasing or discharging asbestos into the ambient air from any source. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• 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}
• 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.
• Facility: means a multi-unit residential building, including all operations associated therewith, used for retirement purposes in which living units are leased for a term to last for the lifetime of the lessee and the lessee's surviving spouse, where the living unit is used as a residence by the lessee and the lessee's surviving spouse, and where the living unit reverts back to the lessor upon the death of the lessee and the lessee's surviving spouse. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 524-1
• Facility: means any institutional, commercial, public, private, or industrial structure, installation or building. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Financial organization: means a savings and loan association, financial services loan company, bank, banking organization, or credit union. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Holder: means a person obligated to hold for the account of, or deliver or pay to, the owner of property that is subject to this part. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Insurance company: means an association, corporation, or fraternal or mutual benefit organization, whether or not for profit, engaged in the business of providing life endowments, annuities, or insurance, including accident, burial, casualty, credit life, contract performance, dental, disability, fidelity, fire, health, hospitalization, illness, life, malpractice, marine, mortgage, surety, wage protection, and workers' compensation insurance. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• 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.
• Landlord: means the owner, lessor, sublessor, assigns or successors in interest of the dwelling unit or the building of which it is a part and in addition means any agent of the landlord. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• 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}
• Lessee: means the person or persons leasing a living unit in a facility. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 524-1
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Mineral: means gas; oil; coal; other gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons; oil shale; cement material; sand and gravel; road material; building stone; chemical raw material; gemstone; fissionable and nonfissionable ores; colloidal and other clay; steam and other geothermal resource; or any other substance defined as a mineral by the law of this State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Mineral proceeds: means amounts payable for the extraction, production, or sale of minerals, or, upon the abandonment of those payments, all payments that become payable thereafter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Money order: includes an express money order and a personal money order, on which the remitter is the purchaser. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-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.
• 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 who has a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this part or the person's legal representative. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Owner: means one or more persons, jointly or severally, in whom is vested:

  (1) All or any part of the legal title to property; or

  (2) All or any part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the property; and

  includes a mortgagee in possession. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8

• 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 a party or properly entitled to be a party in any court or agency proceeding. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-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 342P-1
• Person: means an individual, business association, financial organization, estate, trust, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, government or governmental agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• Premises: means a dwelling unit, appurtenances thereto, grounds, and facilities held out for the use of tenants generally and any other area or facility whose use is promised to the tenant. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Property: means tangible property described in § 523A-4 or a fixed and certain interest in intangible property that is held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder's business, or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, and all income or increments therefrom. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• Public debt: Cumulative amounts borrowed by the Treasury Department or the Federal Financing Bank from the public or from another fund or account. The public debt does not include agency debt (amounts borrowed by other agencies of the Federal Government). The total public debt is subject to a statutory limit.
• 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 Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-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.
• Rental agreement: means all agreements, written or oral, which establish or modify the terms, conditions, rules, regulations, or any other provisions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit and premises. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Repair: means the restoration of asbestos-containing material that has been damaged to seal exposed areas where asbestos fibers may be released, including the repair of enclosures around asbestos-containing materials. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Single family residence: means a structure maintained and used as a single dwelling unit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 523A-2
• 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.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tenant: means any person who occupies a dwelling unit for dwelling purposes under a rental agreement. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• 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}
• Utility service: means service for electricity, water, sewer, and natural gas. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Variance: means the act of deviating from the requirements of rules adopted under this chapter or a license granted by the director to deviate from these rules. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.