Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 55 > Chapter 4 - Registration and Licensing of Motor Vehicles

• ADS-operated vehicle: means a vehicle equipped with an automated driving system. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Bus: means every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than ten (10) passengers and used for the transportation of persons, and every motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Class II off-highway vehicle: means any off-highway vehicle that is designed to be primarily used for recreational purposes, that has a nonstraddle seating capable of holding at least two (2) but no more than four (4) passengers and a steering wheel, and that is commonly referred to as a sand buggy, dune buggy, rock crawler, or sand rail. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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
• Collector: includes any person entrusted with the collection of public revenue. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• collegiate license plate: means the class of cultural motor vehicle registration plates enumerated in §. See Tennessee Code 55-4-201
• 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.
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• cultural license plate: includes collegiate plates and personalized plates unless those plates are specifically excluded from this definition by statute. See Tennessee Code 55-4-201
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• 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
• Department: means the department of revenue. See Tennessee Code 55-1-111
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• 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
• 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}
• Established place of business: means the place actually occupied either continuously or at regular periods by a dealer or manufacturer where the books and records are kept and a large share of the business is transacted. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• farm products: means forage and sod crops. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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 one thousand (1,000) or more vehicles owned or long-term leased by a corporation or other legal entity and registered in the state pursuant to this part. See Tennessee Code 55-4-501
• Foreign vehicle: means every vehicle of a type required to be registered brought into this state from another state, territory or country other than in the ordinary course of business by or through a manufacturer or dealer and not registered in this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Gross weight: means the weight of a vehicle without load plus the weight of any load thereon. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Highway: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way when any part thereto is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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}
• 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.
• Livestock: means all equine as well as animals that are being raised primarily for use as food or fiber for human utilization or consumption including, but not limited to, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and poultry. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Low speed vehicle: means any four-wheeled electric vehicle, excluding golf carts, whose top speed is greater than twenty miles per hour (20 mph) but not greater than twenty-five miles per hour (25 mph), including neighborhood vehicles. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Manufacturer: means every person engaged in the business of constructing or assembling vehicles of a type required to be registered at an established place of business in this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Medium speed vehicle: means any four-wheeled electric or gasoline-powered vehicle, excluding golf carts, whose top speed is greater than thirty miles per hour (30 mph), but whose maximum speed allowed is thirty-five miles per hour (35 mph) only on streets with a forty mile per hour (40 mph) or less posted speed limit pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• memorial license plate: means those motor vehicle registration plates, as enumerated in §. See Tennessee Code 55-4-201
• Mixed dust disease claim: includes a claim made by or on behalf of any person who has been exposed to mixed dust, or any representative, spouse, parent, child, or other relative of that person, for injury, including mental or emotional injury, death, or loss to the person, risk of disease or other injury, costs of medical monitoring or surveillance, or any other effects on the person's health that are caused by the person's exposure to mixed dust. See Tennessee Code 29-34-303
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• new specialty earmarked license plate: means a motor vehicle registration plate authorized by statute on or after July 1, 1998, which statute earmarks the funds produced from the sale of that plate to be allocated to a specific nonprofit organization or state agency or fund to fulfill a specific purpose or to accomplish a specific goal. See Tennessee Code 55-4-201
• 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 a natural person, firm, copartnership, association, corporation, or an engaged ADS. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal 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
• Platoon: means a group of individual motor vehicles that are traveling in a unified manner at electronically coordinated speeds. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Pole trailer: means every vehicle without motive power designed to be driven by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole, or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle, and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads, such as poles, pipes or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Police officer: means every officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for violations of traffic regulations. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Railroad: means a carrier of persons or property upon cars, other than streetcars, operated upon stationary rails. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• Roadway: means that portion of a highway improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• School bus: means every motor vehicle owned by a public or governmental agency and operated for the transportation of children to or from school or privately owned and operated for compensation for the transportation of children to or from school. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Semitrailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• 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
• Silica: means a respirable crystalline form of the naturally occurring mineral form of silicon dioxide, including, but not limited to, quartz, cristobalite, and tridymite. See Tennessee Code 29-34-303
• special purpose license plate: means all other motor vehicle registration plates issued pursuant to this part, including antique motor vehicle, dealer, disabled, emergency, firefighter pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 55-4-201
• specialty earmarked license plate: means a motor vehicle registration plate authorized by statute prior to July 1, 1998, and enumerated in §. See Tennessee Code 55-4-201
• 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
• Tractor: means any self-propelled vehicle designed or used as a traveling power plant or for drawing other vehicles, but having no provision for carrying loads independently. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Traffic: means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances either singly or together while using any highway for purposes of travel. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Trailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Truck: means every motor vehicle designed, used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101
• Truck tractor: means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn. 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
• 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