Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 7 > Chapter 3 > Part 44 - Municipal Commission-Manager Government Continued

• 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.
• Affidavit: means a sworn written declaration made before an officer authorized to administer oaths or an unsworn written declaration made under penalty of perjury as provided in 1-6-105. See Montana Code 1-1-203
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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.
• Appointee: means a person to which a powerholder makes an appointment of appointive property. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Appointive property: means the property or property interest subject to a power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the 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}
• Beneficiary: means a person that receives property under a transfer on death deed. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• Beneficiary form: means a registration of a security that indicates the present owner of the security and the intention of the owner regarding the person who will become the owner of the security upon the death of the owner. See Montana Code 72-6-301
• Blanket-exercise clause: means a clause in an instrument that exercises a power of appointment and is not a specific-exercise clause. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• 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.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the department of revenue provided for in 2-15-1301. See Montana Code 72-16-1001
• Designated beneficiary: means a person designated to receive property in a transfer on death deed. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Direct skip: has the meaning given in section 2612(c), Internal Revenue Code. See Montana Code 72-16-1001
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Donor: means a person who creates a power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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
• Federal generation-skipping transfer tax: means the tax imposed by section 2601, Internal Revenue Code. See Montana Code 72-16-1001
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• General power of appointment: means a power of appointment exercisable in favor of the powerholder, the powerholder's estate, a creditor of the powerholder, or a creditor of the powerholder's estate. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Generation-skipping transfer: means the generation-skipping transfer defined in section 2611, Internal Revenue Code, when the original transferor is a resident of Montana on the date of the original transfer or when the property is real or personal property located in Montana. See Montana Code 72-16-1001
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gift-in-default clause: means a clause identifying a taker in default of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• 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.
• Impermissible appointee: means a person who is not a permissible appointee. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Instrument: means a writing. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Internal Revenue Code: means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. See Montana Code 72-16-1001
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint owner: means an individual who owns property concurrently with one or more other individuals with a right of survivorship. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• 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.
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• 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.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Nongeneral power of appointment: means a power of appointment that is not a general power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes an affirmation or declaration. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• 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.
• Original transferor: means any grantor, donor, settlor, or testator who by grant, gift, trust, or will makes a transfer of real or personal property that results in a federal generation-skipping transfer tax. See Montana Code 72-16-1001
• 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.
• Permissible appointee: means a person in whose favor a powerholder may exercise a power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Person: means an individual, estate, trust, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or other legal entity. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: means money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Power of appointment: means a power that enables a powerholder acting in a nonfiduciary capacity to designate a recipient of an ownership interest in or another power of appointment over the appointive property. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Powerholder: means a person in whom a donor creates a power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Presently exercisable power of appointment: means a power of appointment exercisable by the powerholder at the relevant time. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• 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.
• 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.
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Property: means an interest in real property located in this state which is transferable on the death of the owner. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means lands, tenements, hereditaments, and possessory title to public lands. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Registering entity: means a person who originates or transfers a security title by registration and includes a broker maintaining security accounts for customers and a transfer agent or other person acting for or as an issuer of securities. See Montana Code 72-6-301
• 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.
• Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Security: means a share, participation, or other interest in property, in a business, or in an obligation of an enterprise or other issuer and includes a certificated security, an uncertificated security, and a security account. See Montana Code 72-6-301
• Security account: means :

  (a)a reinvestment account associated with a security, a securities account with a broker, a cash balance in a brokerage account, cash, cash equivalents, interest, earnings, or dividends earned or declared on a security in an account, a reinvestment account, or a brokerage account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death;

  (b)a cash balance or other property held for or due to the owner of a security as a replacement for or product of an account security, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death; or

  (c)an investment management or custody account with a trust company or trust division of a bank with trust powers, including the securities in the account, a cash balance in the account, and cash, cash equivalents, interest, earnings, or dividends earned or declared on a security in the account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death. See Montana Code 72-6-301

• 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.
• Several: means two or more. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Sole ownership: The type of property ownership in which one individual holds legal title to the property and has full control of it.
• Specific-exercise clause: means a clause in an instrument that specifically refers to and exercises a particular power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• 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
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Taker in default of appointment: means a person who takes all or part of the appointive property to the extent the powerholder does not effectively exercise the power of appointment. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• 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
• Terms of the instrument: means the manifestation of the intent of the maker of the instrument regarding the instrument's provisions as expressed in the instrument or as may be established by other evidence that would be admissible in a legal proceeding. See Montana Code 72-7-102
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Transfer on death deed: means a deed authorized under this part. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• Transferor: means an individual who makes a transfer on death deed. See Montana Code 72-6-402
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203