Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 55 > Chapter 17 > Part 1 - Motor Vehicle Sales Licenses

• 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.
• 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.
• Automobile auction: means :
  (A) Any person offering motor vehicles for sale to the highest bidder where buyers are licensed motor vehicle dealers or their duly authorized agents. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Automotive dismantlers and recyclers: means any person, firm, association, corporation, or trust resident or nonresident, who is engaged in the business and/or providing facilities for the purpose of recovering parts from automobiles and trucks, which have been wrecked or otherwise rendered inoperable as transportation vehicles with the parts recovered being for resale and further reduce used automobiles and trucks to a condition capable of salvage for their metal scrap content by scrap processors. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Closed title: means an executed certificate of title indicating the motor vehicle dealer as the current owner or transferee. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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
• Commission: means the motor vehicle commission created by this part. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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.
• Dealer: means every person engaged in the business of buying, selling or exchanging vehicles of a type required to be registered and who has an established place of business for that purpose in this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of revenue. See Tennessee Code 55-1-111
• Distributor branch: means a branch office similarly maintained by a distributor or wholesaler for the same purpose a factory branch is maintained. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Distributor representative: means a representative employed by a distributor or employed by a distributor branch or wholesaler for the purpose of making or promoting the sale of motor vehicles or for supervising, servicing, instructing, procuring, contracting or contacting for any reason motor vehicle dealers or prospective motor vehicle dealers or their employees. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Driver: means :
  (A) For purposes of a conventionally operated vehicle, every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Established place of business: means a permanent structure or structures owned, leased or rented by a motor vehicle dealer providing signs, facilities and office space used exclusively for buying, selling, displaying, advertising, demonstrating, servicing or repairing motor vehicles or functional or nonfunctional parts of motor vehicles and where replacement parts, repair tools and equipment as well as the books and records needed to conduct the business are kept. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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.
• Factory branch: means the branch office maintained by a manufacturer for the sale or transfer of motor vehicles to distributors or to motor vehicle dealers or which is maintained for directing and supervising the representatives of the manufacturer. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Factory representative: means a representative employed by a manufacturer or employed by a factory branch for the purpose of making or promoting the sale of motor vehicles or for supervising, servicing, instructing, procuring, contracting or contacting for any reason motor vehicle dealers or prospective motor vehicle dealers or their employees. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Franchise: means an oral or written agreement for a definite or indefinite period in which a manufacturer or distributor grants to a motor vehicle dealer a license to use a trade name, service mark, or related characteristic and in which there is a community of interest in the marketing of motor vehicles or services related thereto at wholesale, retail, leasing or otherwise. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• 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}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Manufacturer: means any person who manufactures or assembles new and unused motor vehicles or recreational vehicles, or who maintains factory representatives. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Markup: The process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation.
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Motor vehicle: means any self-propelled motor-driven vehicle of the type and kind required to be registered and titled under chapter 1 of this title, and includes, but is not limited to, "motor vehicle" as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Motor vehicle dealer: means any person not excluded by subdivision (17), engaged in the business of selling, offering to sell, soliciting or advertising the sale of motor vehicles or used recreational vehicles, or possessing motor vehicles or used recreational vehicles for the purpose of resale, either on that person's own account or on behalf of another, either as that person's primary business or incidental to that person's business. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Operator: means :
  (A) For purposes of a conventionally operated vehicle, every person, other than a chauffeur, who drives or is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon a highway or who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Owner: means a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle, or in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof, with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor shall be deemed the owner for the purpose of this chapter and chapter 10, parts 1-5 of this title. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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 every natural person, partnership, corporation, association, trust, estate, or any other legal entity. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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.
• 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.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public automobile auction: means a person that offers motor vehicles for sale to the highest bidder, where buyers are members of the public, by a motor vehicle dealer licensed to sell used motor vehicles that holds a public auto auction license and uses the services of a public automobile auctioneer licensed by the Tennessee auctioneer commission. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Public automobile auctioneer: means any individual who, for a fee, commission, or any other valuable consideration, or with the intention or expectation of receiving a fee, commission, or any other valuable consideration, by the means or process of auction or sale at auction, offers, negotiates, or attempts to negotiate a listing contract, sale, purchase or exchange of goods, including motor vehicles. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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
• Sale: means the issuance, transfer, agreement for transfer, exchange, pledge, hypothecation, mortgage in any form, whether by transfer in trust or otherwise, of any motor vehicle or interest therein or of any franchise related thereto, as well as any option, subscription or other contract, or solicitation looking to a sale, offer or attempt to sell in any form, whether spoken or written. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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: means the entire width between boundary lines of every way when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Subscription: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Truck: means every motor vehicle designed, used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Vehicle: means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• vehicle salesperson: means any person who is not excluded by subdivision (17), and who is:
  (A) Employed by a licensed motor vehicle dealer who is engaged in the business of effecting or attempting to effect the sale or purchase of motor vehicles or used recreational vehicles owned by some other person to residents of the state, for which service some form of remuneration is expected, whether the remuneration be designated as a salary, fee commission, rental, or otherwise, and regardless of whether the remuneration is paid by the buyer, seller, or a third party. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• wholesaler: means any person who in whole or in part sells or distributes any new and unused motor vehicles to motor vehicle dealers or who maintains distributor representatives. See Tennessee Code 55-17-102
• 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