Terms Used In Kentucky Statutes > Chapter 394 - Wills

• Action: includes all proceedings in any court of this state. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• 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.
• Attorney: means attorney-at-law. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Certified mail: means any method of governmental, commercial, or electronic delivery that allows a document or package to have proof of:
  (a) Sending the document or package. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Dower: A widow
• 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
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foreign: when applied to a corporation, partnership, limited partnership, business trust, statutory trust, or limited liability company, includes all those incorporated or formed by authority of any other state. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• 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.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• 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.
• last will: means last will and testament. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Owner: when applied to any animal, means any person having a property interest in such animal. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Personal estate: includes chattels, real and other estate that passes to the personal representative upon the owner dying intestate. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• real estate: includes lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interest therein, other than a chattel interest. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes territories, outlying possessions, and the District of Columbia. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Sworn: includes "affirmed" in all cases in which an affirmation may be substituted for an oath. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Year: means calendar year. See Kentucky Statutes 446.010