Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 54 > Chapter 21 - Billboard Regulation and Control Act of 1972

• 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.
• 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.
• Ascendant: means an individual who precedes another individual in lineage, in the direct line of ascent from the other individual. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Changeable message sign: means an outdoor advertising device that displays a series of messages at intervals by means of digital display or mechanical rotating panels. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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
• Collateral: means an individual who is related to another individual under the law of intestate succession of this state but who is not the other individual's ascendant or descendant. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation or the commissioner's designee. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Compensation: means the exchange of anything of value, including money, securities, real property interests, personal property interests, goods or services, promise of future payment, or forbearance of debt. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conforming: means an outdoor advertising device that was permitted under and conforms to the zoning, size, lighting, and spacing criteria established in accordance with either the current agreement entered into between the commissioner and the secretary of transportation of the United States on or about October 18, 1984, or the original agreement entered into on or about November 11, 1971, as authorized in §. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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.
• 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 54-21-102
• Descendant: means an individual who follows another individual in lineage, in the direct line of descent from the other individual. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Destroyed: means , with respect to a nonconforming outdoor advertising device, that, in the case of wooden sign structures, sixty percent (60%) or more of the upright supports of a sign structure are physically damaged such that normal repair practices would call for replacement of the broken supports or, in the case of metal sign structures, replacement of at least thirty percent (30%) of the length above ground of each broken, bent, or twisted support. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Determination of value: means a court order determining the fair market value of heirs property under §. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Digital display: means a type of changeable message sign that displays a series of messages at intervals through the electronic coding of lights or light emitting diodes or any other means that does not use or require mechanical rotating panels. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Erect: means to construct, build, raise, assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other way bring into being or establish, but does not apply to changes of copy treatment on an existing outdoor advertising device. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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 commercial or industrial facility, or other facility open to the public, that operates with regular business hours on a year-round basis within a building or defined physical space, which may include a structure other than a building, together with any immediately adjacent parking areas. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Heirs property: means real property held in tenancy in common that satisfies all of the following requirements as of the filing of a partition action:
  (A) There is no agreement in a record binding all the cotenants that governs the partition of the property. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• 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
• Interstate system: means that portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways, located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated, by the commissioner, and approved by the secretary of transportation of the United States, pursuant to title 23 of the United States Code. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• 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.
• 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.
• Main traveled way: means the traveled way of a highway on which through traffic is carried. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Nonconforming: means an outdoor advertising device that does not conform to the zoning, size, lighting, or spacing criteria established by and in accordance with either the current agreement entered into between the commissioner and the secretary of transportation of the United States, or in accordance with the original agreement entered into on or about November 11, 1971, as authorized in §. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• On-premises device: means a sign:
  (A) That is located within fifty feet (50') of, and on the same parcel of property and on the same side of the highway as, the facility that owns or operates the sign or within fifty feet (50') of, and on the same parcel of property and on the same side of the highway as, the entrance to the parcel of property upon which two (2) or more facilities are located. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Partition by sale: means a court-ordered sale of the entire heirs property, whether by auction, sealed bids, or open-market sale conducted under §. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Partition in kind: means the division of heirs property into physically distinct and separately titled parcels. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• 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 and includes an individual, a partnership, an association, a corporation, or other entity. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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.
• Primary system: means that portion of connected main highways, located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated by the commissioner, and approved by the secretary of transportation of the United States, pursuant to title 23 of the United States Code, including highways designated as part of the national highway system and highways formerly designated as part of the federal-aid primary system. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Relative: means an ascendant, descendant, or collateral or an individual otherwise related to another individual by blood, marriage, adoption, or law of this state other than this part. See Tennessee Code 29-27-302
• Safety rest area: means an area or site established and maintained within or adjacent to the right-of-way by or under public supervision or control, for the convenience of the traveling public. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Sign: means an outdoor sign, light, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing which is designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform any part of the advertising or informative contents of which is visible from any place on the main traveled way of an interstate system or primary system. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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
• Sole ownership: The type of property ownership in which one individual holds legal title to the property and has full control of it.
• 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
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Traveled way: means the portion of a roadway for the movement of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• 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: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Utility signs: means warning signs, notices, or markers that are customarily erected and maintained for operational and public safety purposes by publicly or privately owned utilities, railroads, ferries, airports, or other entities that provide utility or transportation services. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Visible: means capable of being seen, whether or not readable, without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• 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