Terms Used In Maine Revised Statutes > Title 24-A > Chapter 3 - the Insurance Superintendent

• 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.
• another department: means a department of the State other than the Department of Health and Human Services. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• another program: means a program of the department not defined as a program in subsection 10 or a program of another department that is approved for addition to the EBT system. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• 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}
• 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
• Child or children: means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Health and Human Services. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 1-A
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Debit card: means an encoded plastic card distributed by the department or another department or a contractor with that department for use in an automated teller machine or a point of sale device. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• 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 and Human Services. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 1-A
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• EBT: means a system for the delivery of benefits to recipients by means of credit or debit card services, automated teller machines, point of sale devices or access to online systems for the withdrawal of funds or the processing of a payment for merchandise or a service. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• EBT card: means a card issued by the department under an electronic benefits transfer system for the delivery of benefits to recipients. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Election official: means a warden, ward clerk, deputy warden or election clerk. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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.
• 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.
• Incoming voting list: means the printed list of all of the voters in a municipality that is used by election officials at a voting place to record which voters have been issued a ballot at an election. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• 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}
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• 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.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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
• Medicaid: means the Medicaid program under the provisions of the United States Social Security Act, Title XIX, and successors to it, and related rules of the department pursuant to chapter 855. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Month: means a calendar month. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes an affirmation, when affirmation is allowed. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• 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.
• Official tally tape: means the first tape produced by an electronic tabulating machine that tallies the final vote totals at the conclusion of voting and that is attached to the zero tape produced by the machine prior to the start of voting. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 21-A Sec. 1
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parents as Scholars: means the program established in chapter 1054?B. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• 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
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Point of sale device: means a machine that accepts a debit card distributed to recipients; electronically processes transactions at the vendor's place of business; and records and reports individual recipient benefit entitlement and distribution. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• 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.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• 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
• Program: means SNAP or the Medicaid program or another program. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• 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
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recipient: means a recipient of benefits under SNAP or the Medicaid program or another program. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Referendum: means an election for the determination of a question. 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.
• 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
• 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.
• SNAP: means the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program established pursuant to section 3104. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: means the program established in chapter 1053?B. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• 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.
• Under age: means under the age of 18. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• United States: includes territories and the District of Columbia. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• Vendor: means an authorized retailer, wholesaler or health care provider that provides food, cash benefits or health care services to a recipient. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 22 Sec. 21
• 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