Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 39-2 - Duties of Utilities and Carriers

• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Commission: means the public utilities commission. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Company: means and includes a person, firm, partnership, corporation, quasi-municipal corporation, association, joint-stock association or company, and his, her, its, or their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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.
• Customer: means a company taking service from an electric distribution company at a single point of delivery or meter location. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Division: means the division of public utilities and carriers. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electric distribution company: means a company engaging in the distribution of electricity or owning, operating, or controlling distribution facilities and shall be a public utility pursuant to subsection (20) of this section. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Electronic communication service: means any service that provides to its users the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-2-20.1
• 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.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Internet service provider: means an entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections of digital online communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user's choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received and includes a provider of online services or network access, including entities that provide an electronic communication service or remote computing service, but does not mean the offering on a common carrier basis of telecommunication facilities or of telecommunications. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-2-20.1
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Natural gas: means the combustible, gaseous mixture of low-molecular-weight, paraffin hydrocarbons, generated below the surface of the earth, containing mostly methane and ethane with small amounts of propane, butane, and hydrocarbons, and sometimes nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and helium. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Nonprofit housing development corporation: means a nonprofit corporation that has been approved as a Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Nonregulated power producer: means a company engaging in the business of producing, manufacturing, generating, buying, aggregating, marketing, or brokering electricity for sale at wholesale or for retail sale to the public; provided however, that companies that negotiate the purchase of electric generation services on behalf of customers and do not engage in the purchase and resale of electric generation services shall be excluded from this definition. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• 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.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Proper service: means the delivery of a search warrant or an administrative subpoena by hand, by United States mail, by commercial delivery service, by facsimile, or by any other manner to any officer of a corporation or its general manager in the state of Rhode Island to any natural person designated by the entity as its agent for service of process, or if the corporation has designated a corporate agent. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-2-20.1
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Public utility: means and includes every company that is an electric distribution company and every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, water, telephone, telegraph, and pipeline company, and every company owning, leasing, maintaining, managing, or controlling any plant or equipment, or any part of any plant or equipment, within this state for manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or manufactured gas, directly or indirectly, to or for the public, or any cars or equipment employed on, or in connection with, any railroad or street railway for public or general use within this state, or any pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, fixtures, through, over, across, under, or along any public highways, parkways, or streets, public lands, waters, or parks for the transmission, transportation, or distribution of gas for sale to the public for light, heat, cooling, or power for providing audio or visual telephonic or telegraphic communication service within this state, or any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well, or distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of water to the consuming public within this state, including the water supply board of the city of Providence; provided, that, except as provided in § 39-16-9 and in P. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Railroad: means and includes every railroad other than a street railway, by whatsoever power, operated for public use in the conveyance in this state of persons or property for compensation, with all bridges, ferries, tunnels, switches, spurs, tracks, stations, wharves, and terminal facilities of every kind, used, operated, controlled, leased, or owned by or in connection with any railroad. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Remote computing service: means the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communication system. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-2-20.1
• 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.
• Street railway: means and includes every railway by whatsoever power operated or any extension or extensions, branch, or branches thereof, for public use in the conveyance in this state of persons or property for compensation, being mainly upon, along, above, or below any street, avenue, road, highway, bridge, or public place in any city or town, and including all switches, spurs, tracks, rights of trackage, subways, tunnels, stations, terminals, and terminal facilities of every kind, used, operated, controlled, or owned by or in connection with any street railway. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• 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
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.