Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 30 > Miscellaneous Actions

• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Any other state: includes any state and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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 governing board of the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries established pursuant to ORS § 516. See Oregon Statutes 516.010
• Board: means the governing board of the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• By-product: means any mineral or minerals, exclusive of helium or of oil, hydrocarbon gas or other hydrocarbon substances, that are found in solution or in association with geothermal resources and that have a value of less than 75 percent of the value of the geothermal resource or are not, because of quantity, quality, or technical difficulties in extraction and production, of sufficient value to warrant extraction and production by themselves. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• City: includes any incorporated village or town. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Completed geothermal well: means a well producing geothermal resources for which the operator has received the department's written assurance that the manner of drilling of and producing geothermal resources from the well are satisfactory. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Condensate: means liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in the gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Cooperative agreement: means an agreement or plan of development and operation for the production or utilization of geothermal resources in which separate ownership units independently operate without allocation of production. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• 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.
• Correlative rights: means the right of each owner in a geothermal area to obtain that owner's just and equitable share of the underlying geothermal resource, or an economic equivalent of that share of the resource, produced in a manner and in an amount that does not injure the reservoir to the detriment of others. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries established pursuant to ORS § 516. See Oregon Statutes 516.010
• Department: means the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• 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.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Drilling: includes drilling, redrilling and deepening of a geothermal well. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• 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}
• 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.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Field: means the general area underlaid by one or more pools. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subsection (5) of this section, including condensate originally in the gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Gender identity: means an individual's gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior, regardless of whether the identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that associated with the gender assigned to the individual at birth. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Geologic hazard: means a geologic condition that is a potential danger to life and property which includes but is not limited to earthquake, landslide, flooding, erosion, expansive soil, fault displacement, volcanic eruption and subsidence. See Oregon Statutes 516.010
• Geology: means the study of the earth, and in particular the study of the origin, history and topographic form of rocks, ores and minerals, either under the ground or upon the surface, and their alteration by surface agencies, such as wind, water, ice and other agencies, and the economics of their use. See Oregon Statutes 516.010
• Geothermal area: means any parcel of land that is, or reasonably appears to be, underlaid by geothermal resources. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Geothermal reinjection well: means any well or converted well constructed to dispose of geothermal fluids derived from geothermal resources into an underground reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Geothermal resources: means the natural heat of the earth, the energy, in whatever form, below the surface of the earth present in, resulting from, or created by, or that may be extracted from, the natural heat, and all minerals in solution or other products obtained from naturally heated fluids, brines, associated gases, and steam, in whatever form, found below the surface of the earth, exclusive of helium or of oil, hydrocarbon gas or other hydrocarbon substances, but including, specifically:

  (a) All products of geothermal processes, including indigenous steam, hot water and hot brines;

  (b) Steam and other gases, hot water and hot brines resulting from water, gas, or other fluids artificially introduced into geothermal formations;

  (c) Heat or other associated energy found in geothermal formations; and

  (d) Any by-product derived from them. See Oregon Statutes 522.005

• Geothermal well: includes any excavation made for producing geothermal resources and any geothermal reinjection well. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Information hole: means a hole drilled for information purposes only, including but not limited to core holes, stratigraphic holes or other test holes. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• 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.
• Land: means both surface and mineral rights. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• 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.
• local government: means all cities, counties and local service districts located in this state, and all administrative subdivisions of those cities, counties and local service districts. See Oregon Statutes 174.116
• Mineral: includes any and all mineral products, metallic and nonmetallic, solid, liquid or gaseous, and mineral waters of all kinds. See Oregon Statutes 516.010
• Mineral industries: includes all enterprises engaged in developing and exploiting the natural substances of the earth. See Oregon Statutes 516.010
• 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.
• Oil: means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced in liquid form by ordinary production methods, but does not include liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in a gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Operator: means the person:

  (a) Who possesses the legal right to drill a geothermal well;

  (b) Who has obtained a drilling permit pursuant to ORS § 522. See Oregon Statutes 522.005

• Owner: means a person who has the right to drill into and to produce from any pool and to appropriate the oil or gas produced therefrom either for others, for the person or for the person and others. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• 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.
• Person: means any natural person, partnership, corporation, association, receiver, guardian, fiduciary, administrator, representative of any kind, or the State of Oregon and any public body as defined in ORS § 174. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Person: includes individuals, corporations, associations, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies and joint stock companies. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil and natural gas. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• 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.
• Presentence report: A report prepared by a court's probation officer, after a person has been convicted of an offense, summarizing for the court the background information needed to determine the appropriate sentence. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prospect well: includes any well drilled as a geophysical test well, seismic shot hole, mineral exploration drilling, core drilling or temperature gradient test well and drilled in prospecting for geothermal resources. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Protect correlative rights: means that the action or regulation by the board affords a reasonable opportunity to each person entitled thereto to recover or receive the oil or gas in the tract or tracts of the person or the equivalent thereof, without being required to drill unnecessary wells or to incur other unnecessary expense to recover or receive such oil or gas or its equivalent. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• 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
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Reservoir: means an aquifer or combination of aquifers or zones containing a common geothermal or ground water resource. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Seismic program: means the collection of seismic exploration data through a continuous field operation. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Sexual orientation: means an individual's actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• state government: means the executive department, the judicial department and the legislative department. See Oregon Statutes 174.111
• State Treasury: includes those financial assets the lawful custody of which are vested in the State Treasurer and the office of the State Treasurer relating to the custody of those financial assets. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• 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.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Underground reservoir: means any subsurface sand, strata, formation, aquifer, cavern or void whether natural or artificially created, suitable for the injection and storage of natural gas therein and the withdrawal of natural gas therefrom, but excluding a pool. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Underground storage: means the process of injecting and storing natural gas within and withdrawing natural gas from an underground reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Unit agreement: means an agreement or plan of development and operation developed under the provisions of ORS § 273. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Unit area: means one or more pools or parts thereof under unit operation pursuant to ORS § 520. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
• Unit area: means the area described in a unit agreement that constitutes the land subject to development under the agreement. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• Unit operator: means the person designated in the unit agreement to manage and conduct the operation involving unitized land. See Oregon Statutes 522.005
• United States: includes territories, outlying possessions and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Violate: includes failure to comply. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Well: includes a well drilled in search of a new or undiscovered pool, or with the intent of extending the limits of a developed pool. See Oregon Statutes 520.005