Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 523 - Geothermal Heating Districts

• 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.
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• board of commissioners: means the governing body of a district. See Oregon Statutes 523.010
• By-product: means any mineral or minerals (exclusive of oil, hydrocarbon gas, helium or other hydrocarbon substances) which are found in solution or in association with geothermal resources and which have a value of less than 75 percent of the value of the geothermal resources 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 523.010
• 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.
• 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 523.010
• County clerk: means the county clerk of the county. See Oregon Statutes 523.010
• County court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• District: means a geothermal heating district formed under this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 523.010
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• 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}
• 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}
• Geothermal heat: means heat derived from geothermal resources. See Oregon Statutes 523.010
• 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 which 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 oil, hydrocarbon gas, helium or other hydrocarbon substances, but including, specifically:

  (a) All products of geothermal processes, embracing 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 formation; and

  (d) Any by-product derived from them. See Oregon Statutes 523.010

• 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.
• 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.
• Owner: means the holder of the record title to real property or the vendee under a land sale contract, if there is such a contract. See Oregon Statutes 523.010
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• public body: means state government bodies, local government bodies and special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.109
• 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.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.