Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes > Chapter 116B - Environmental Rights

• Abandon: means to give up the use and maintenance of structures or improvements to realty and to surrender them to deterioration. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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.
• Appropriating: means withdrawal, removal, or transfer of water from its source regardless of how the water is used. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Board: means the Board of Water and Soil Resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of natural resources. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• 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.
• Electronic transmission: means the transfer of data or information through an electronic data interchange system consisting of, but not limited to, computer modems and computer networks. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• 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}
• estimated market value: has the meaning given in section 273. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• 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.
• Local government unit: means :

  (1) outside of the seven-county metropolitan area, a city council, county board of commissioners, or a soil and water conservation district or their delegate;

  (2) in the seven-county metropolitan area, a city council, a town board under section 368. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• Municipality: means a home rule charter or statutory city. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Ordinary high-water level: means the boundary of water basins, watercourses, public waters, and public waters wetlands, and:

  (1) the ordinary high-water level is an elevation delineating the highest water level that has been maintained for a sufficient period of time to leave evidence upon the landscape, commonly the point where the natural vegetation changes from predominantly aquatic to predominantly terrestrial;

  (2) for watercourses, the ordinary high-water level is the elevation of the top of the bank of the channel; and

  (3) for reservoirs and flowages, the ordinary high-water level is the operating elevation of the normal summer pool. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• 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.
• Pasture: means an area that was grazed by domesticated livestock or that was planted with annually seeded crops in a crop rotation seeding of grasses or legumes in six of the last ten years prior to January 1, 1991. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Political subdivision: means a county, city, town, school district, or other local government jurisdiction to which the state provides state aids or on which the state imposes state mandates. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Project: means a specific plan, contiguous activity, proposal, or design necessary to accomplish a goal as defined by the local government unit. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Public waters: means :

  (1) water basins assigned a shoreland management classification by the commissioner under sections 103F. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005

• Public waters wetlands: means all types 3, 4, and 5 wetlands, as defined in United States Fish and Wildlife Service Circular No. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tax: means any fee, charge, exaction, or assessment imposed by a governmental entity on an individual, person, entity, transaction, good, service, or other thing. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• verified: when used in reference to writings, means supported by oath or affirmation. See Minnesota Statutes 645.45
• Violate: includes failure to comply with. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Waters of the state: means surface or underground waters, except surface waters that are not confined but are spread and diffused over the land. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Watershed: means the 81 major watershed units delineated by the map, "State of Minnesota Watershed Boundaries - 1979. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005
• Wetlands: means lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water. See Minnesota Statutes 103G.005