Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 62 > Article 7 - South Carolina Trust Code

• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• 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.
• applicant: means a person holding a resident or nonresident commercial motor vehicle driver's license seeking employment with an employer described in subsection (2) who will perform a safety sensitive function as part of his employment. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2210
• 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.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• CMVSA: means the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (Title XII of Public Law 99-570). See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Commercial motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle designed or used to transport passengers or property if the vehicle:
  
  (a) has a gross vehicle weight rating of twenty-six thousand one or more pounds;
  
  (b) is designed to transport sixteen or more persons, including the driver; or
  
  (c) is transporting hazardous materials and is required to be placarded in accordance with 49 C. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Controlled substance: means a substance classified under Section 102(6) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Conviction: means an unvacated adjudication of guilt, or a determination that a person has violated or failed to comply with the law in a court of original jurisdiction or an authorized administrative tribunal, an unvacated forfeiture of bail or collateral deposited to secure the person's appearance in court, a plea of guilty or nolo contendere accepted by the court, the payment of a fine or court cost, or violation of a condition of release without bail, regardless of whether or not the penalty is rebated, suspended, or probated. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Disqualification: means a withdrawal of the privilege to drive a commercial motor vehicle. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Drive: means to drive, operate, or be in physical control of a motor vehicle. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Driver: means a person who drives a commercial motor vehicle or who is required to hold a commercial driver's license. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• employee: includes a person holding a resident or nonresident commercial motor vehicle driver's license employed by an employer described in subsection (2) who performs a safety sensitive function, or an owner-operator subject to testing by a consortium or third party administrator who performs drug and alcohol testing services pursuant to 49 C. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2210
• Employer: means a person, including the United States, a state, or a political subdivision of a state who owns or leases a commercial motor vehicle or assigns a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• employer: includes all motor carriers or employers who employ drivers who operate commercial motor vehicles and who are required to have a drug and alcohol testing program pursuant to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 C. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2210
• Endorsement: means a special authorization to drive certain types of vehicles or to transport certain types of property or a certain number of passengers. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• 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.
• Felony: means an offense under state or federal law that is punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Fleet: means fifty or more marked private passenger motor vehicles or property carrying vehicles with empty weight of not more than twenty-two thousand pounds and a gross vehicle weight of not more than twenty-six thousand pounds, owned or long-term leased by a corporation or other legal entity, and registered in this State pursuant to this article. See South Carolina Code 56-3-1010
• 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}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gross vehicle weight rating: means the weight or the value specified by the manufacturer as the maximum loaded weight of a single or a combination vehicle. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• handicapped: means a person who has one or more of the following conditions:
  
  (1) an inability to ordinarily walk one hundred feet nonstop without aggravating an existing medical condition, including the increase of pain;
  
  (2) an inability to ordinarily walk without the use of, or assistance from a brace, cane, crutch, another person, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or other assistive device;
  
  (3) a restriction by lung disease to the extent that the person's forced expiratory volume for one second when measured by spirometry is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty mm/hg on room air at rest;
  
  (4) requires use of portable oxygen;
  
  (5) a cardiac condition to the extent that the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according to standards established by the American Heart Association. See South Carolina Code 56-3-1910
• Handicapped: means a person as defined in § 56-3-1910. See South Carolina Code 56-3-1950
• Hazardous materials: means any material that has been designated as hazardous under 49 C. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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}
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• 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.
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• 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}
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• 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.
• Lineal descendant: Direct descendant of the same ancestors.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Motor vehicle: means a vehicle which is self- propelled and a vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires but not operated upon rails, except a vehicle moved solely by human power and motorized wheelchairs. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• Out-of-service order: means declaration by an authorized enforcement officer of a federal, state, Canadian, Mexican, or local jurisdiction that a person, a commercial motor vehicle, or a motor carrier operation is out of service pursuant to 49 CFR Sections 386. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• 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}
• 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
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Restriction: means a prohibition against driving certain types of vehicles or a requirement that the driver comply with certain conditions when driving a motor vehicle. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
• School bus: means a commercial motor vehicle used to transport pre-primary, primary, or secondary students from home to school, from school to home, or to and from school-sponsored events. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• 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.
• State: means a state or territory of the United States and the District of Columbia and the federal government and a province or territory of Canada. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• 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.
• 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.
• Trustor: The person who makes or creates a trust. Also known as the grantor or settlor.
• 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}
• United States: means the fifty states and the District of Columbia. See South Carolina Code 56-1-2030
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.