Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 60 > Chapter 1 > Part 6 - Oil and Gas Surface Owners Compensation

• 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.
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil, including condensate because it originally was in a gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Tennessee Code 60-1-101
• 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.
• 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
• Oil: means crude petroleum that was originally in an oil phase in the reservoir. See Tennessee Code 60-1-101
• Operator: means any person who owns or is directly responsible for a business involved in some phase of the production, manufacture, refining or distribution of petroleum oil or natural gas. See Tennessee Code 60-1-101
• Owner: means the person who has the right to drill into and to produce from any pool, and to appropriate the production for such person or others. See Tennessee Code 60-1-101
• 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 any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary or representative of any kind. See Tennessee Code 60-1-101
• 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
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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
• 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
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105