Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 28 - Declaratory Judgments; Certification of Questions of Law

• Action: includes recoupment, counterclaim, setoff, suit in equity and any other proceeding in which rights are determined, including an action for possession. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Additional fire hazard: means a hazard that has been determined to exist by the forester pursuant to ORS § 477. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Adjournment sine die: The end of a legislative session "without day." These adjournments are used to indicate the final adjournment of an annual or the two-year session of legislature.
• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Articles of incorporation: means the articles described in ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• association: means an association, group or agency composed of owners of forestlands, organized for the purpose of protecting such forestlands from fire. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the 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.
• 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}
• Board: means the State Board of Forestry. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Campfire: means any open fire used for cooking, personal warmth, lighting, ceremonial or aesthetic purposes that is hand built and that is not associated with any debris disposal activities. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• clearing: means any grassland, improved area, lake, meadow, mechanically or manually cleared area, road, rocky area, stream or other similar forestland opening that is surrounded by or contiguous to forestland and that has been included in areas classified as forestland under ORS § 526. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• County: means the county in which the district, or the greater portion of the taxable assessed value of the district, is located. See Oregon Statutes 478.001
• County board: means the county court or board of county commissioners of the county. See Oregon Statutes 478.001
• Court administrator: means a trial court administrator in a circuit court that has a trial court administrator and the clerk of the court in all other courts. See Oregon Statutes 18.005
• 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.
• Demolition material: means any waste resulting from the complete or partial destruction of any man-made structure such as a house, apartment, commercial building or industrial building. See Oregon Statutes 478.001
• Department: means the State Forestry Department. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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.
• Distribution: means a direct or indirect transfer of money or other property, except of a corporation's own shares, or a corporation's incurrence of indebtedness to or for the benefit of the corporation's shareholders in respect of any of the corporation's shares, in the form of a declaration or payment of a dividend, a purchase, redemption or other acquisition of shares, a distribution of indebtedness, or otherwise. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• District: means a forest protection district organized under ORS § 477. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• District: means a rural fire protection district proposed to be organized or organized under, or subject to, this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 478.001
• Dwelling unit: means a structure or the part of a structure that is used as a home, residence or sleeping place by one person who maintains a household or by two or more persons who maintain a common household. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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}
• Entity: means a corporation, foreign corporation, nonprofit corporation, profit or nonprofit unincorporated association, business trust, partnership, two or more persons that have a joint or common economic interest, any state, the United States, a federally recognized Native American or American Indian tribal government and any foreign government. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Every reasonable effort: means the use of the reasonably available personnel and equipment under the supervision and control of an owner or operator, which are needed and effective to fight the fire in the judgment of the forester and which can be brought to bear on the fire in a timely fashion. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• 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.
• Facility: means a manufactured dwelling park or a marina. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fire protection equipment: means any apparatus, machinery or appliance intended for use by a fire service unit in fire prevention or suppression activities, excepting forest fire protection equipment. See Oregon Statutes 476.005
• Fire season: means a period designated pursuant to ORS § 477. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• 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.
• Fiscal year: means the period beginning on July 1 of any year and ending on June 30 of the next year. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Floating home: has the meaning given that term in ORS § 830. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation for profit that is incorporated under laws other than the laws of the state. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Forest patrol assessment: means the costs levied and assessed under ORS § 477. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Forester: means the State Forester or authorized representative. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Forestland: means any woodland, brushland, timberland, grazing land or clearing that, during any time of the year, contains enough forest growth, slashing or vegetation to constitute, in the judgment of the forester, a fire hazard, regardless of how the land is zoned or taxed. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• 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.
• Governmental subdivisions: means a city, county or rural fire protection district in this state whose functions include regulation of building use and occupancy and the administration of fire safety laws, ordinances and regulations. See Oregon Statutes 476.005
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• Individual: means a natural person or the estate of an incompetent individual or a deceased individual. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Judgment: means the concluding decision of a court on one or more requests for relief in one or more actions, as reflected in a judgment document. See Oregon Statutes 18.005
• Landlord: includes a person who is authorized by the owner, lessor or sublessor to manage the premises or to enter into a rental agreement. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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}
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Manufactured dwelling: includes an accessory building or structure. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Manufactured dwelling park: means a place where four or more manufactured dwellings are located, the primary purpose of which is to rent space or keep space for rent to any person for a charge or fee. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Open burning: means any burning conducted in such a manner that combustion air is not effectively controlled and that combustion products are not vented through a stack or chimney, including but not limited to burning conducted in open outdoor fires, common burn barrels and backyard incinerators. See Oregon Statutes 478.001
• Open fire: means any outdoor fire that occurs in such a manner that combustion air is not effectively controlled and combustion products are not effectively vented through a stack or chimney. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Operation: means any industrial activity, any development or any improvement on forestland inside or within one-eighth of one mile of a forest protection district, including but not limited to the harvesting of forest tree species, the clearing of land, the use of power-driven machinery and the use of fire, excluding, however, the culture and harvesting of agricultural crops. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Operation area: means the area on which an operation is being conducted and the area on which operation activity may have resulted in the ignition of a fire. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Operator: means any person who, either personally or through employees, agents, representatives or contractors, is carrying on or has carried on any operation. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Owner: includes a mortgagee in possession and means one or more persons, jointly or severally, in whom is vested:

  (a) All or part of the legal title to property; or

  (b) All or part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the premises. See Oregon Statutes 90.100

• Owner: means an individual, a combination of individuals, a partnership, a corporation, the State of Oregon or a political subdivision thereof, or an association of any nature that holds an ownership interest in land. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• 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 an individual or organization. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Person: means an individual or entity. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• Prepaid rent: means any payment of money to the landlord for a rent obligation not yet due. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Principal office: means the physical street address of an office, in or out of this state, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located and designated in the annual report or in the application for authority to transact business in this state. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Proceeding: means a civil, criminal, administrative or investigatory action. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• public body: means state government bodies, local government bodies and special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.109
• public notice: means any legal publication which requires an affidavit of publication as required in ORS § 193. See Oregon Statutes 174.104
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Rent: means any payment to be made to the landlord under the rental agreement, periodic or otherwise, in exchange for the right of a tenant and any permitted pet to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of others and to use the premises. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Rental agreement: includes a lease. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Shareholder: means a person in whose name a share is registered in the records of a corporation or the beneficial owner of a share to the extent of the rights granted by a nominee certificate on file with a corporation. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Shell entity: means an entity that has the characteristics described in ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Slashing: means the forest debris or refuse on any forestland resulting from the cutting, killing, pruning, severing or removal of brush, trees or other forest growth. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• State Forester: means the person appointed State Forester pursuant to ORS § 526. See Oregon Statutes 477.001
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Violate: includes failure to comply. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Warden: means a fire warden appointed under ORS § 477. See Oregon Statutes 477.001