Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 62 > Article 3 - Probate of Wills and Administration

• 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.
• air carrier: is a corporation licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration with a certificate of public convenience and necessity or an operating certificate under other applicable federal law or pertinent regulations which operates aircraft to or from an air carrier hub terminal facility as defined in this section. See South Carolina Code 55-11-500
• air carrier hub terminal facility: is a n airport terminal facility from which an air carrier certified or licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration, within five years from the date of issuance of the obligations described in this article, operates either:
  
  (1) at least twenty common carrier departing flights a day on which the general public may fly seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. See South Carolina Code 55-11-500
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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
• Artifact recovery: means the recovery of artifactual material by hand or through excavation. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• artifactual material: means any object or assemblage of objects found in an archaeological context which yields or is likely to yield information of significance to the scientific study of human prehistory, history, or culture, and which have remained unclaimed for more than fifty years. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Authority: means the State Fiscal Accountability Authority. See South Carolina Code 55-11-500
• Beneath or substantially beneath: means permanently or periodically covered, in whole or in part, by the territorial waters of the State. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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}
• Bequeath: To gift property by will.
• 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.
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Commercial applicant: means an applicant for a license under this article for purposes other than those of a noncommercial applicant, such as commercial salvage or income-producing purposes. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Data: means any information related to the site of submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological property which includes, without limitation, artifactual and/or paleontological material, remote sensing survey charts, magnetic tape records of positions, site maps, feature plans, photographs, measurements, and historical documentation. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Data collection: includes the collection of artifactual and/or paleontological material that is exposed or resting on, but not embedded in, submerged lands. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Data recovery: means a systematic study carried out in accordance with a research plan which may include data collection, excavation, and artifact or fossil recovery. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Day: means a twenty-four hour period beginning at 12:00 midnight. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Debris field: means the area in which artifactual or paleontological materials associated with a site are found. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the Director of the Institute or a designee of the director. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Embedded: means firmly affixed in submerged lands such that the use of tools of excavation are required in order to move the bottom sediments to gain access to the submerged archaeological historic property or paleontological materials or any part of them. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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.
• 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.
• Excavation: means the process of moving, removing, or disturbing bottom sediments to expose submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological materials. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• Field archaeologist: means a professional archaeologist selected by the licensee and approved by the institute to supervise operations under a license. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Field paleontologist: means a paleontologist selected by the licensee and approved by the museum to supervise operations under a license. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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}
• fossil recovery: means the recovery of paleontological materials by hand or through excavation. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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}
• Germane: On the subject of the pending bill or other business; a strict standard of relevance.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• 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.
• Historic property: means a district, site, building, structure, or object significant in the prehistory, history, upland and underwater archaeology, architecture, engineering, and culture of the State, including artifacts, records, and remains related to the district, site, building, structure, or object. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Immediate environment: means that area surrounding a submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological site which, if disturbed, could result in substantive injury to the property, including, without limitation, the debris field. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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}
• Institute: means the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Intensive survey: means a field and archival investigation of an area designed to gather and identify fully information about submerged archaeological historic properties sufficient to evaluate them in relation to National Register criteria of significance within specific historical contexts. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• 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.
• Licensee: means any person or entity authorized to perform certain recovery operations from a submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological property under the provisions of this article by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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.
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Marital deduction: The deduction(s) that can be taken in the determination of gift and estate tax liabilities because of the existence of a marriage or marital relationship.
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Monitoring archaeologist: means an underwater archaeologist selected by the institute for the purpose of monitoring work activity under a license issued by the institute. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Monitoring paleontologist: means a paleontologist or Natural History Curator selected by the museum commission for the purpose of monitoring work activity under a license issued by the institute. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• National Register: means the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Navigable waters: means all waters belonging to the State which are navigable in fact or were navigable in the past. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Noncommercial applicant: means a person seeking a license for the purpose of gathering scientific, historical, or architectural data for either:
  
  (a) public exhibition, interpretation, or preservation and not for the purpose of producing income, profit, or gain; or
  
  (b) mitigation of adverse effects of a proposed undertaking on submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological property. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Object: means a material thing produced or resulting from human activity which has functional, aesthetic, cultural, historical, or scientific value and which includes artifactual material. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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.
• Paleontological property: means paleontological material or any site which contains paleontological material. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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 an individual, partnership, corporation, association, organized group of persons, or any other legal entity. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• 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.
• Preservation: means the identification, evaluation, recordation, documentation, curation, acquisition, protection, management, rehabilitation, restoration, stabilization, maintenance, and reconstruction of a submerged archaeological historic property or a submerged paleontological property. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Primary scientific value: means any submerged archaeological historic property or submerged paleontological property which:
  
  (a) yields or may yield information of great importance or significance to state, regional, national or international history or prehistory. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• 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.
• Reconnaissance survey: means a limited archival and field investigation, designed and accomplished in sufficient detail to make generalizations about the type, distribution, and value of an area's submerged archaeological historic properties or submerged paleontological sites, which may include data collection but may not include excavation, data recovery, or artifact recovery. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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.
• Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
• 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.
• Site: means :
  
  (a) the location of an event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure including a shipwreck, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, and its debris field where the location itself maintains historical or archaeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure;
  
  (b) the location of an accumulation of paleontological material where the location itself maintains paleontological value. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• State: means the State of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• State Museum: means the South Carolina Museum Commission authorized by this article as custodians of paleontological materials. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• State Underwater Archaeologist: means a person appointed by the Director of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology who administers this article. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Structure: means a constructed work made up of interdependent and interrelated parts in a definite pattern of organization. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Submerged: means beneath or substantially beneath the territorial waters of the State or submerged at mean low tide. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Submerged archaeological historic property: means any site, vessel, structure, object, or remains which:
  
  (a) yields or is likely to yield information of significance to scientific study of human prehistory, history, or culture; and
  
  (b)(i) is embedded in or on submerged lands and has remained unclaimed for fifty years or longer; or
  
  (ii) is included in, or has been determined, or may be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Submerged lands: means lands beneath or substantially beneath the territorial waters of the State or which are submerged at mean low tide. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Submerged paleontological property: means any object or assemblage of objects found in a paleontological context which yield or are likely to yield information of significance to the scientific study or educational potential of the past faunal diversity, past environments, geologic time, or other paleontological concerns. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Substantive injury: means any action or influence which causes a change in the archaeological or paleontological context, the structural integrity, or the physical condition of a site as to render it more vulnerable to loss, damage, destruction, or diminution of historic or paleontological value. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Territorial waters: means the navigable waters of the State, namely, all tidal waters within the boundaries of the State up to, but not above, the line of mean low tide and seaward to a line three geographical miles distant from the coastline of the State measured by reference to mean low tide elevation as defined in the Geneva Convention, Article 11, and such other waters of the State as may be included within the term "lands beneath navigable waters" as defined in the Federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• 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.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Undertaking: means an activity by the institute or South Carolina Museum Commission that would otherwise require a license under this article. See South Carolina Code 54-7-620
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.