Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 34-36.1 - Condominium Law

• 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.
• 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.
• 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}
• 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.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal 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.
• 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.
• Department: means the department of business regulation. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• Director: means the director of the department of business regulation. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• 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.
• Event permit: means a permit that a city or town issues to the organizer of a public mobile food establishment event located on public property. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• 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.
• 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.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• hotel: means a hotel, motel, resort, boarding house, or bed and breakfast that is kept, used, or advertised as, or held out to the public as, a place where sleeping or housekeeping accommodations are supplied for pay to guests for leisure, business, or group occupancy. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-14-3
• Hotel: shall mean any establishment defined in § 5-14-3. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-14.1-1
• Human trafficking: means the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act as defined in Rhode Island General Laws 5-14.1-1
• in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Licensing authorities: means the bureau or board of police commissioners of any city or town where that bureau or board of police commissioners is established; but where there is no bureau or board, it means the town council of a town and the city council of a city. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-16-1
• 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.
• Mobile food establishment: means a food service operation that is operated from a movable motor-driven or propelled vehicle, portable structure, or watercraft that can change location. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Municipal mobile food establishment permit: means a permit issued by a city or town to a mobile food establishment operator that possesses a current state mobile food establishment registration. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• 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.
• operator: means a person or corporate entity who or that owns, manages, or controls, or who or that has the duty to manage or control, the operation of a mobile food establishment. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• outdoor advertising: as used in this chapter , applies only to all advertising displayed to attract the attention of persons on any public highway, or while in the vehicle of any common carrier, or in any station of a common carrier, or while in any public building, public park, public grounds, or other public places, whether the advertising by means of printing, writing, picture, or a combination of those, and whatever may be the means of display, except that it does not include advertising located upon private property and relating exclusively to the business conducted on that property or the sale or rental of the property, or advertising in or upon the cars and stations of any common carrier. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-18-1
• 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 individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-13-1
• Person: means and includes a person, partnership, or corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-16-1
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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}
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public laundry: means and includes any plant or equipment conducted or operated as a laundry for profit, and for which business is solicited from the general public, but does not mean or include a laundry operated exclusively for and in connection with a hospital, school, or other institution, hotel, boardinghouse, or private dwelling, nor a laundry operated by one institution that also serves another institution. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-16-1
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: may be construed to include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-10
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Registrant: means the holder of a "state mobile food establishment registration. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• registration: means a registration issued by the department which authorizes a mobile food establishment to operate in the state. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• 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.
• Riding school: means any establishment in connection with which one or more horses are let for hire to be ridden or driven, either with or without the furnishing of riding or driving instruction. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-13-1
• RIDOH: means the Rhode Island department of health. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• 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
• 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.
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• town council: include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• 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.
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8
• vendor: means a person who prepares, sells, cooks, or serves food or beverages from a mobile food establishment. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-11.1-3