Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 29 > Chapter 20 > Part 3 - Claims Procedure

• Agriculture: means :
  (i) The land, buildings and machinery used in the commercial production of farm products and nursery stock. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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
• Claim: means any claim brought against a governmental entity or its employee as permitted by this chapter. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-5-103
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-5-103
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-4-502
• 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.
• 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.
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-5-103
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-4-502
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-5-103
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Employee: means and includes any official (whether elected or appointed), officer, employee or servant, or any member of any board, agency, or commission (whether compensated or not), or any officer, employee or servant thereof, of a governmental entity, including the sheriff and the sheriff's employees and, further including regular members of voluntary or auxiliary firefighting, police, or emergency assistance organizations. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• 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.
• Facility: means a highway, bridge, tunnel, parking lot or garage, or other paved surface or structure that is designed to carry or contain land transportation vehicles, or another transportation-related facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• 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.
• Governmental entity: means any political subdivision of the state of Tennessee including, but not limited to, any municipality, metropolitan government, county, utility district, school district, nonprofit volunteer fire department receiving funds appropriated by a county legislative body or a legislative body of a municipality, human resource agency, community action agency or nonprofit corporation that administers the Head Start or Community Service Block Grant programs, public building authority, and development district created and existing pursuant to the constitution and laws of Tennessee, or any instrumentality of government created by any one (1) or more of the named local governmental entities or by an act of the general assembly. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Injury: means death, injury to a person, damage to or loss of property or any other injury that one may suffer to one's person, or estate, that would be actionable if inflicted by a private person or such person's agent. See Tennessee Code 29-20-102
• 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.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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}
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local government: means any county, incorporated city or town, and metropolitan form of government, or any of them. See Tennessee Code 54-4-502
• Municipal street aid fund: means the funds provided for municipalities by §. See Tennessee Code 54-4-201
• Municipality: means any incorporated city or incorporated town charged with the duty of constructing and maintaining streets within its corporate boundaries. See Tennessee Code 54-4-201
• 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.
• Open road user fee system: means a system for the collection of user fees via electronic means without the use of physical payment booths. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• operation: means activity associated with the management, operation, and maintenance of a completed user fee project, including, but not limited to, collecting user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Street: includes streets, highways, avenues, boulevards, publicly owned rights-of-way, bridges, tunnels, public parking areas or other public ways dedicated to public use and maintained for general public travel lying within a municipality's corporate boundaries. See Tennessee Code 54-4-201
• Street improvements: means construction, reconstruction, improvement and maintenance of streets, including paving, repaving, grading and drainage, repairs, cleaning, acquisition and maintenance of rights-of-way, extension and widening of existing streets, elimination of railroad grade crossings, acquisition or lease or lease/purchase of trucks or other equipment necessary in the construction and maintenance of streets, including the purchase, construction or leasing of facilities to store the equipment, street lighting, signage and other traffic control devices, and administrative and other necessary expenses, including labor and employee benefits, in connection with the street improvements. See Tennessee Code 54-4-201
• 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.
• User fee: means a fee or charge for the use of a user fee facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• User fee facility: means a facility where the development or operation of the facility is wholly or partially funded with user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
• 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.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105