Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 7 > Chapter 4 > Part 22 - County Officers in General

• Adult: means an individual who has attained the age of 21 years. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Agent: means a person granted authority to act for a principal under a power of attorney, whether denominated an agent, attorney-in-fact, or otherwise. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• 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.
• 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.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• 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}
• Broker: means a person lawfully engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities or commodities for the person's own account or for the account of others. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Conservator: means a person appointed or qualified by a court to act as general, limited, or temporary guardian of a minor's property or a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Court: means district court. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Custodial property: means :

  (a)any interest in property transferred to a custodian under this chapter; and

  (b)the income from and proceeds of that interest in property. See Montana Code 72-26-502

• Custodian: means a person so designated under 72-26-603 or a successor or substitute custodian designated under 72-26-801. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Customary: means according to usage. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• 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.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Financial institution: means a bank, trust company, savings institution, or credit union chartered and supervised under state or federal law. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Good faith: means honesty in fact. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• 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.
• Incapacity: means inability of an individual to manage property or business affairs because the individual:

  (a)has an impairment in the ability to receive and evaluate information or make or communicate decisions even with the use of technological assistance; or

  (b)is:

  (i)missing; or

  (ii)outside the United States and unable to return. See Montana Code 72-31-302

• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• 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 representative: means an individual's personal representative or conservator. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Minor: means an individual who has not attained the age of 21 years. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• 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.
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Person: means an individual, corporation, organization, or other legal entity. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• 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 72-31-302
• Personal property: means money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: means an executor, administrator, successor personal representative, or special administrator of a decedent's estate or a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• 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.
• 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}
• Power of attorney: means a writing or other record that grants authority to an agent to act in the place of the principal, whether or not the term power of attorney is used. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• Principal: means an individual who grants authority to an agent in a power of attorney. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• Printing: means the act of reproducing a design on a surface by any process. See Montana Code 1-1-203
• Probate: Proving a will
• 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
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, or legal or equitable, or any interest or right therein. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• 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
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• 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.
• 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.
• Sign: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

  (a)to execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or

  (b)to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic sound, symbol, or process. See Montana Code 72-31-302

• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• 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
• State: includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Stocks and bonds: means stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and all other types of securities and financial instruments, whether held directly, indirectly, or in any other manner. See Montana Code 72-31-302
• Subscribing witness: means a person who sees a writing executed or hears it acknowledged and at the request of the party signs the person's name as a witness. See Montana Code 1-1-203
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Third persons: means all persons who are not parties to the obligation or transaction concerning which the phrase is used. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Transfer: means a transaction that creates custodial property under 72-26-603. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Transferor: means a person who makes a transfer under this chapter. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• Trust company: means a financial institution, corporation, or other legal entity authorized to exercise general trust powers. See Montana Code 72-26-502
• 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
• Usual: means according to usage. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203