Terms Used In Maine Revised Statutes > Title 11 > Article 2 > Part 3 - General Obligation and Construction of Contract

• Accessible voting system: means a voting system that is accessible for individuals with disabilities, including nonvisual accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, in a manner that provides the same opportunity for access and participation, including privacy and independence, as for other voters. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• Any election: means primary and general elections and referenda, whether regular or special. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• 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-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.
• Ballot labels: means the pages, cards or other material containing the names of offices and candidates and the referendum questions to be voted on that are placed on the voting device to conform with the voting system in use. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• Block group: means an area comprising all of the blocks within a tract or BNA whose census data labels begin with the same digit. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1202
• Buyer: means a person who buys or contracts to buy goods. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 11 Sec. 2-103
• Candidate: means any person who has filed a petition under either sections 335 and 336 or sections 354 and 355 and has qualified as a candidate by either procedure, or any person who has received contributions or made expenditures or has given consent for any other person to receive contributions or make expenditures with the intent of qualifying as a candidate. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• 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.
• Contract for sale: includes both a present sale of goods and a contract to sell goods at a future time. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 11 Sec. 2-106
• 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.
• Declared write-in candidate: means a write-in candidate who has filed a declaration to be a write-in candidate pursuant to section 722?A. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Direct recording electronic voting machine: means a system that records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical, electro-optical or electro-audio components that can be activated by the voter, that processes data by means of a computer program and that records voting data in memory components. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• Electronic tabulating system: includes all the software and firmware required to program and control the equipment in the respective system. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• health insurance: means insurance of human beings against bodily injury, disablement or death by accident or accidental means, or the expense thereof, or against disablement or expense resulting from sickness, and every insurance appertaining thereto, including provision for the mental and emotional welfare of human beings by defraying the costs of legal services only to the extent provided for in chapter 38. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 704
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• in writing: include printing and other modes of making legible words. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• may: when used in this Title, is used in a permissive sense to grant authority or permission, but not to create duty, to act in the manner specified by the context. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 7
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• municipal clerk: means the clerk, deputy clerk or assistant clerk, where directed by the clerk to carry out duties under this Title, of a municipality. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Municipal officers: means the mayor and aldermen or councillors of a city, the members of the select board or councillors of a town and the assessors of a plantation. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Municipality: means a city, town or plantation. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners: means the National Association of Insurance Commissioners or its successor organization of insurance regulators. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 15
• 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.
• paper ballot: means the printed paper ballot on which votes may be recorded in the layout and format required to conform to the electronic voting system in use. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• 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 a political organization which has qualified to participate in a primary or general election under chapter 5. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Population: means the population determined by the last Decennial Census of the United States. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Primary election: means the regular election for the election of nominees of a party for the general election. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Public counter: means a separate counter built into a voting device that records the total number of ballots cast or tabulated on the voting device for an election. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Question: means any proposition submitted to the voters. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Referendum: means an election for the determination of a question. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Register: means to enlist as a voter. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• 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.
• Residence: means that place where the person has established a fixed and principal home to which the person, whenever temporarily absent, intends to return. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Residence address: means the street and number or other designation indicating the physical location of a person's residence. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Seller: means a person who sells or contracts to sell goods. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 11 Sec. 2-103
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Tract: means that area composed of blocks or block groups that is defined as a tract in the United States Census for 1990. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1202
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes territories and the District of Columbia. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• Voter: means a person registered to vote. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Voting device: means the voting machine or electronic tabulating system apparatus that the voters use to record their votes on paper ballots or on a tabulating card. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• Voting district: means an area set off from another in the same municipality for voting purposes. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Voting machine: means an apparatus on which voters cast their votes that records each vote by means of mechanical or electronic counters and furnishes a total of the number of votes cast for each candidate and for and against each referendum measure. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• Voting place: means the building in which ballots are cast at an election. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Voting system: means the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical or electronic equipment, including the software, firmware and documentation required to program, control and support the equipment, that is used to define or produce ballots, to cast and count votes, to report or display election results and to maintain and produce any audit trail information. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 808
• Warden: means the presiding officer at a voting place. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Write-in candidate: means a person whose name does not appear on the ballot under the office designation to which a voter may wish to elect the candidate. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1