Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 4 > Chapter 23 - Joint County Fire Districts

• Agency: means an authority, board, branch, commission, committee, department, division, or other instrumentality of the executive department of state government, including administrative bodies and bodies corporate and politic established as an instrumentality of the State. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• 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.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Beach preservation fee: means a fee imposed on the gross proceeds derived from the rental or charges for accommodations furnished to transients for consideration within the jurisdiction of the governing body which are subject to the tax imposed pursuant to § 12-36-920(A). See South Carolina Code 6-1-620
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Bonds: shall include notes, bonds, refunding bonds, and other obligations authorized to be issued by this chapter. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
• Business license: means a license issued to a taxpayer by a county or municipality for the privilege of doing business in that county or municipality. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
• Charitable organization: means an organization that is determined by the Internal Revenue Service to be exempt from federal income taxes under 26 U. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
• Charitable purpose: means a benevolent, philanthropic, patriotic, or eleemosynary purpose that does not result in personal gain to a sponsor, organizer, officer, director, trustee, or person with ultimate control of a charitable organization. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Family member: means an individual who is:
  
  (a) the spouse, parent, brother, sister, child, mother-in-law, father-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandparent, or grandchild; or
  
  (b) a member of the individual's immediate family. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
• Financing Agreement: shall mean any agreement, including without limitation an agreement whereby a county or incorporated municipality shall lease or sell a project to an industry, made by and between the governing board and any one or more industries by which the industry or industries agree to pay to (and to secure if so required) the county or the incorporated municipality, as the case may be, or to any assignee thereof, the sums required to meet the payment of the principal, interest and redemption premium, if any, on any bonds. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
• 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.
• 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.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Governing Board: shall mean any one of the governing bodies of the several counties and incorporated municipalities of the State as now or hereafter constituted; and in the event that any project shall be located in more than one county, the term "governing board" shall also relate to the governing bodies of the several counties wherein such project shall be located. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
• Governing body: means the governing body of a qualified coastal municipality. See South Carolina Code 6-1-620
• Gross income: means the gross receipts or gross revenue of a business, received or accrued, for one calendar or fiscal year collected or to be collected from business done within a taxing jurisdiction. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
• Industry: shall mean any person, firm or corporation engaged in any one or more of the enterprises identified in item (3) of this section or any person, firm or corporation providing facilities constituting a project to be used by any one or more of the enterprises identified in item (3) of this section. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
• Joint session: When both chambers of a legislature adopt a concurrent resolution to meet together.
• 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.
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local accommodations tax: means a tax on the gross proceeds derived from the rental or charges for accommodations furnished to transients as provided in § 12-36-920(A) and which is imposed on every person engaged or continuing within the jurisdiction of the imposing local governmental body in the business of furnishing accommodations to transients for consideration. See South Carolina Code 6-1-510
• Local governing body: means the governing body of a county or municipality. See South Carolina Code 6-1-510
• 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.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Official capacity: means activities which:
  
  (a) arise because of the position held by the public official or public employee;
  
  (b) involve matters which fall within the official responsibility of the agency, the public official, or the public employee; and
  
  (c) are services the agency would normally provide and for which the public official or public employee would be subject to expense reimbursement by the agency with which the public official or public employee is associated. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Person: means :
  
  (a) an individual, labor union and organization, joint apprenticeship committee, partnership, association, corporation, legal representative, mutual company, joint-stock company, trust, unincorporated organization, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver, or other legal or commercial entity located in part or in whole in the State or doing business in the State;
  
  (b) the State and any agency or local subdivision of an agency; or
  
  (c) a political subdivision. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Positive majority: means a vote for adoption by the majority of the members of the entire governing body, whether present or not. See South Carolina Code 6-1-510
• 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.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Project: means any land and any buildings and other improvements on the land including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, water, sewage treatment and disposal facilities, air pollution control facilities, and all other machinery, apparatus, equipment, office facilities, and furnishings which are considered necessary, suitable, or useful by the following investors or any combination of them:
  
  (a) any enterprise for the manufacturing, processing, or assembling of any agricultural or manufactured products;
  
  (b) any commercial enterprise engaged in storing, warehousing, distributing, transporting, or selling products of agriculture, mining, or industry, or engaged in providing laundry services to hospitals, to convalescent homes, or to medical treatment facilities of any type, public or private, within or outside of the issuing county or incorporated municipality and within or outside of the State;
  
  (c) any enterprise for research in connection with any of the foregoing or for the purpose of developing new products or new processes or improving existing products or processes;
  
  (d) any enterprise engaged in commercial business including, but not limited to, wholesale, retail, or other mercantile establishments; residential and mixed use developments of two thousand five hundred acres or more; office buildings; computer centers; tourism, sports, and recreational facilities; convention and trade show facilities; and public lodging and restaurant facilities if the primary purpose is to provide service in connection with another facility qualifying under this subitem; and
  
  (e) any enlargement, improvement, or expansion of any existing facility in subitems (a), (b), (c), and (d) of this item. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Qualified coastal municipality: means a municipality bordering on the Atlantic Ocean that has a public beach within its corporate limits and which imposes a local accommodations tax pursuant to § 6-1-520 that does not exceed one and one-half percent pursuant to the limitations imposed pursuant to § 6-1-540. See South Carolina Code 6-1-620
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Security Agreement: shall mean any trust agreement, mortgage, security agreement or assignment by which any bond or bonds issued pursuant to this chapter may be secured. See South Carolina Code 4-29-10
• State officer: means any of the following:
  
  (a) the Governor;
  
  (b) the Lieutenant Governor;
  
  (c) the Secretary of State;
  
  (d) the State Comptroller General;
  
  (e) the State Treasurer;
  
  (f) the Attorney General;
  
  (g) the Superintendent of Education;
  
  (h) the Commissioner of Agriculture; or
  
  (i) the Adjutant General. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Taxing jurisdiction: means a county or municipality levying a business license tax. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
• Taxpayer: means an individual, firm, partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability corporation, corporation, trust, estate, association, or company. See South Carolina Code 6-1-400
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• thing of value: means :
  
  (i) a pecuniary item, including money, a bank bill, or a bank note;
  
  (ii) a promissory note, bill of exchange, an order, a draft, warrant, check, or bond given for the payment of money;
  
  (iii) a contract, agreement, promise, or other obligation for an advance, a conveyance, forgiveness of indebtedness, deposit, distribution, loan, payment, gift, pledge, or transfer of money;
  
  (iv) a stock, bond, note, or other investment interest in an entity;
  
  (v) a receipt given for the payment of money or other property;
  
  (vi) a chose-in-action;
  
  (vii) a gift, tangible good, chattel, or an interest in a gift, tangible good, or chattel;
  
  (viii) a loan or forgiveness of indebtedness;
  
  (ix) a work of art, an antique, or a collectible;
  
  (x) an automobile or other means of personal transportation;
  
  (xi) real property or an interest in real property, including title to realty, a fee simple or partial interest in realty including present, future, contingent, or vested interests in realty, a leasehold interest, or other beneficial interest in realty;
  
  (xii) an honorarium or compensation for services;
  
  (xiii) a promise or offer of employment;
  
  (xiv) any other item that is of pecuniary or compensatory worth to a person. See South Carolina Code 2-17-10
• 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.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Workforce housing: means residential housing for rent or sale that is reasonably and appropriately priced for rent or sale to a person or family whose income falls within thirty percent and one hundred twenty percent of the median income for the local area, with adjustments for household size, according to the latest figures available from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). See South Carolina Code 6-1-510