Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 5 > Chapter 13 - County Fiscal Procedure Law of 1957

• Abuse: means :
  (A) Inflicting, or attempting to inflict, physical injury on an adult or minor by other than accidental means. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• Activities under service agreements: means day-to-day cooperation and activities based upon interlocal service or operational agreements or contracts between or among governmental entities. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Adult: means any person eighteen (18) years of age or older, or who is otherwise emancipated. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• 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.
• Aid: means the same as assistance, except that aid is provided in an occurrence during any period of time when a state of emergency has not been declared. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Assistance: means the provision of personnel, equipment, facilities, services, supplies, and other resources to assist in firefighting, law enforcement, the provision of public works services, the provision of emergency medical care, the provision of civil defense services, or any other emergency assistance one governmental entity is able to provide to another in response to a request for assistance in a municipal, county, state, or federal state of emergency. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• beverage: means and includes alcohol, spirits, liquor, wine, high alcohol content beer, and every liquid containing alcohol, spirits, wine, and high alcohol content beer and capable of being consumed by a human being, other than patent medicine or beer, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 57-3-101
• Board: means the Tennessee hall of fame board created within the department under §. See Tennessee Code 4-3-5402
• Board: means the board of trustees of an authority. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• chief legislative body: means the county legislative body. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Child born out of wedlock: means a child born to parents who are not married to each other when the child was born. See Tennessee Code 36-2-302
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• 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 tourist development, or the commissioner's designee. See Tennessee Code 4-3-5402
• 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.
• 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 executive: means and includes "county mayor" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Court: means the juvenile court or any trial court with general jurisdiction. See Tennessee Code 36-2-302
• court: means any court of record with jurisdiction over domestic relations matters or the general sessions criminal court. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• Creating municipality: means any city or metropolitan government having a population of not less than two hundred thousand (200,000), according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census, or any county in which any such city shall be situated, that shall create an authority pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of tourist development. See Tennessee Code 4-3-5402
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Disaster: means any natural, technological, or civil emergency that results in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property of sufficient severity and magnitude that there is a declaration, resulting from the emergency, of a disaster by the governor under state law or the president under federal law. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Domestic abuse: means committing abuse against a victim, as defined in subdivision (5). See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Embryo parentage: means the acceptance of rights and responsibilities for an embryo by a recipient intended parent. See Tennessee Code 36-2-402
• Embryo transfer: means the medical procedure of physically placing an embryo into the uterus of a female recipient intended parent. See Tennessee Code 36-2-402
• Emergency: means an occurrence or threat of an occurrence, whether natural or man-made, that results in or may result in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property and which results in a declaration of a state of emergency by a municipal mayor, a county mayor or executive, the governor, or the president. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Emergency assistance: means assistance provided by a participating governmental entity to another under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Employee: means paid, volunteer, and auxiliary personnel and emergency management workers of a governmental entity. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executive officer: means the mayor, county mayor, or other chief executive officer of any creating or participating municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Executor: includes an administrator, where the subject matter applies to an administrator. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Father: means the biological father of a child born out of wedlock. See Tennessee Code 36-2-302
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Firearm: means any weapon designed, made or adapted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or any device readily convertible to that use. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• 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.
• 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the chief legislative body of any creating or participating municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Governmental entity: means any political subdivision of the state, including, but not limited to, any incorporated city or town, metropolitan government, county, utility district, school district, nonprofit volunteer fire department receiving public funds and recognized under title 68, chapter 102, part 3, rescue squad, human resource agency, public building authority, airport authority, and development district, or any instrumentality of government created by one (1) or more of these named governmental entities or the general assembly, or any entity otherwise recognized by state law as a local governmental entity. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• 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.
• Hall of fame: means the Tennessee sports hall of fame created under §. See Tennessee Code 4-3-5402
• hospital authority: means a public body and a body corporate and public organized in accordance with this chapter for the purposes, with the powers, and subject to the restrictions set forth in this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• human embryo: means an individual fertilized ovum of the human species from the single-cell stage to eight-week development. See Tennessee Code 36-2-402
• Insane: includes all persons of unsound mind. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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}
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Legal embryo custodian: means the person or entity, including an embryo transfer clinic, who hold the legal rights and responsibilities for a human embryo and who relinquishes said embryo to another person. See Tennessee Code 36-2-402
• legal transfer of rights to an embryo: means the relinquishment of rights and responsibilities by the person or persons who hold the legal rights and responsibilities for an embryo. See Tennessee Code 36-2-402
• 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.
• Metropolitan government: means the political entity created by consolidation of all, or substantially all, of the political and corporate functions of a county and a city or cities. See Tennessee Code 7-1-101
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• Mother: means the biological mother of a child born out of wedlock. See Tennessee Code 36-2-302
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• Occurrence: means the imminent threat of an event or an actual event and its aftermath, whether natural or man-made, that could lead to or results in bodily injury or property damage. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Ordinance: means any ordinance adopted by governing bodies pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parent: means the biological mother or biological father of a child, regardless of the marital status of the mother and father. See Tennessee Code 36-2-302
• Participating governmental entity: means any governmental entity in the state that requests or responds to a request for aid or assistance under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Participating municipality: means any city, town or county, which city, town or county, pursuant to a resolution of its governing body and an agreement with the creating municipality, shall have sold, leased, dedicated, donated or otherwise conveyed its hospitals to the authority for operation by the authority in order to make such hospital an operational part of its health care system. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. 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
• Petitioner: means the person alleging domestic abuse, stalking, sexual exploitation of a minor, sexual assault, or a human trafficking offense in a petition for an order for protection. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• Preferred response: means law enforcement officers shall arrest a person committing domestic abuse unless there is a clear and compelling reason not to arrest. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Recipient intended parent: means a person or persons who receive a relinquished embryo and who accepts full legal rights and responsibilities for such embryo and any child that may be born as a result of embryo transfer. See Tennessee Code 36-2-402
• 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
• Requesting party: means a governmental entity that requests aid or assistance from another governmental entity under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• Resolution: means any resolution adopted by governing bodies pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• Respondent: means the person alleged to have abused, stalked or sexually assaulted another in a petition for an order for protection. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• Responding party: means a governmental entity that has received and responded to a request to provide mutual aid or assistance to another governmental entity under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 58-8-102
• 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.
• Sexual assault victim: means any person, regardless of the relationship with the perpetrator, who has been subjected to, threatened with, or placed in fear of any form of rape, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• 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
• Stalking victim: means any person, regardless of the relationship with the perpetrator, who has been subjected to, threatened with, or placed in fear of the offense of stalking, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 7-57-103
• 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
• State communications: refers to the transmission of voice, data, video, the written word or other visual signals by electronic means but does not include broadcast radio and television facilities. See Tennessee Code 4-3-5525
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Weapon: means a firearm or a device listed in §. See Tennessee Code 36-3-601
• 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