Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 76 > Chapter 3 > Part 6 - Local Review Procedure

• 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.
• Certificate of survey: means a drawing of a field survey prepared by a registered surveyor for the purpose of disclosing facts pertaining to boundary locations. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dedication: means the deliberate appropriation of land by an owner for any general and public use, reserving to the landowner no rights that are incompatible with the full exercise and enjoyment of the public use to which the property has been devoted. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• 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.
• Examining land surveyor: means a registered land surveyor appointed by the governing body to review surveys and plats submitted for filing. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Final plat: means the final drawing of the subdivision and dedication required by this chapter to be prepared for filing for record with the county clerk and recorder and containing all elements and requirements set forth in this chapter and in regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Governing body: means a board of county commissioners or the governing authority of a city or town organized pursuant to law. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• 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.
• Minor subdivision: means a subdivision that creates five or fewer lots from a tract of record. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Phased development: means a subdivision application and preliminary plat that at the time of submission consists of independently platted development phases that are scheduled for review on a schedule proposed by the subdivider. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Planned unit development: means a land development project consisting of residential clusters, industrial parks, shopping centers, or office building parks that compose a planned mixture of land uses built in a prearranged relationship to each other and having open space and community facilities in common ownership or use. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Plat: means a graphical representation of a subdivision showing the division of land into lots, parcels, blocks, streets, alleys, and other divisions and dedications. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Preliminary plat: means a neat and scaled drawing of a proposed subdivision showing the layout of streets, alleys, lots, blocks, and other elements of a subdivision that furnish a basis for review by a governing body. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Subdivider: means a person who causes land to be subdivided or who proposes a subdivision of land. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Subdivision: means a division of land or land so divided that it creates one or more parcels containing less than 160 acres that cannot be described as a one-quarter aliquot part of a United States government section, exclusive of public roadways, in order that the title to the parcels may be sold or otherwise transferred and includes any resubdivision and a condominium. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tract of record: means an individual parcel of land, irrespective of ownership, that can be identified by legal description, independent of any other parcel of land, using documents on file in the records of the county clerk and recorder's office. See Montana Code 76-3-103
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203