Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 65 > Chapter 4 - Regulation of Public Utilities by Commission

• Antique firearm: means :
  (A) Any firearm, including any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system, manufactured in or before the year 1898. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• authorized: means six (6) months after granting of the construction permit by the federal communications commission to the second entity or when the second entity begins offering service in the same cellular geographical area, whichever should first occur. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Benefit: means anything reasonably regarded as economic gain, enhancement or advantage, including benefit to any other person in whose welfare the beneficiary is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Bodily injury: includes a cut, abrasion, bruise, burn or disfigurement, and physical pain or temporary illness or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Caller identification service: means telephone service which notifies telephone subscribers of the telephone number of incoming telephone calls. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• 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
• Coercion: means a threat, however communicated, to:
  (A) Commit any offense. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Commission: means the Tennessee public utility commission. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Commission: means the Tennessee public utility commission. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• 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.
• Competing telecommunications service provider: means any individual or entity that offers or provides any two-way communications service, telephone service, telegraph service, paging service, or communications service similar to such services and is certificated as a provider of such services after June 6, 1995, unless otherwise exempted from this definition by state or federal law. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• cooperative: shall mean only those nonprofit cooperative entities organized under or otherwise subject to the Rural Electric and Community Services Cooperative Act, compiled in chapter 25 of this title, or the Telephone Cooperative Act, compiled in chapter 29 of this title. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Criminal negligence: refers to a person who acts with criminal negligence with respect to the circumstances surrounding that person's conduct or the result of that conduct when the person ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Deception: means that a person knowingly:
  (i) Creates or reinforces a false impression by words or conduct, including false impressions of fact, law, value or intention or other state of mind that the person does not believe to be true. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• 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.
• Defendant: means a person accused of an offense under this title and includes any person who aids or abets the commission of such offense. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• existing customer: includes a residential subscriber with whom the person or entity making a telephone solicitation has had a prior relationship within the prior twelve (12) months. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• facsimile: means :
  (A) Every process in which electronic signals are transmitted by telephone lines for conversion into written text or other graphic images. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• 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.
• Government: means the state or any political subdivision of the state, and includes any branch or agency of the state, a county, municipality or other political subdivision. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Harm: means anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage or injury, including harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Incumbent local exchange telephone company: means a public utility offering and providing basic local exchange telephone service as defined by §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Interexchange carriers: means companies, other than incumbent local exchange telephone companies, owning facilities in the state which consist of network elements and switches, or other communication transmission equipment used to carry voice, data, image, and video traffic across the local access and transport area (LATA) boundaries within Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Local exchange company: includes telecommunications service providers as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Local exchange company: includes telecommunications service providers as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Minor: means any person under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Owner: means a person, other than the defendant, who has possession of or any interest other than a mortgage, deed of trust or security interest in property, even though that possession or interest is unlawful and without whose consent the defendant has no authority to exert control over the property. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Parent: means a company owning more than fifty percent (50%) of the voting shares, or otherwise a controlling interest, of another company. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Person: means a natural person, individual, partnership, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, any corporation, parent, subsidiary or affiliate thereof, or any other legal or commercial entity however organized and wherever located. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Person: includes the singular and the plural and means and includes any individual, firm, partnership, copartnership, association, corporation, governmental subdivision or agency, or other organization or other legal entity, or any agent or servant thereof. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Person: means a natural person, individual, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association and any other legal or commercial entity however organized and wherever located that telemarkets to citizens located within this state. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Property: means anything of value, including, but not limited to, money, real estate, tangible or intangible personal property, including anything severed from land, library material, contract rights, choses-in-action, interests in or claims to wealth, credit, admission or transportation tickets, captured or domestic animals, food and drink, electric or other power. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Public place: means a place to which the public or a group of persons has access and includes, but is not limited to, highways, transportation facilities, schools, places of amusement, parks, places of business, playgrounds and hallways, lobbies and other portions of apartment houses and hotels not constituting rooms or apartments designed for actual residence. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Public servant: means :
  (A) Any public officer or employee of the state or of any political subdivision of the state or of any governmental instrumentality within the state including, but not limited to, law enforcement officers. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Public utility: includes a wind energy facility, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• 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
• Residential subscriber: means a person who has subscribed to residential telephone service from a local exchange company or the other persons living, residing or visiting with such person. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Serious bodily injury: means bodily injury that involves:
  (A) A substantial risk of death. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Services: includes labor, skill, professional service, transportation, telephone, mail, gas, electricity, steam, water, cable television, entertainment subscription service or other public services, accommodations in hotels, restaurants or elsewhere, admissions to exhibitions, use of vehicles or other movable property, and any other activity or product considered in the ordinary course of business to be a service, regardless of whether it is listed in this subdivision (a)(38) or a specific statute exists covering the same or similar conduct. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Subscription: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Subsidiary: means a corporation with more than fifty percent (50%) of its outstanding voting shares being owned by its parent or the parent's other subsidiaries. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Telecommunications service provider: means any incumbent local exchange telephone company or certificated individual or entity, or individual or entity operating pursuant to the approval by the former public service commission of a franchise within §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Telephone solicitation: means any voice communication over a telephone originating from Tennessee or elsewhere that:
  (i) Promotes or encourages, directly or indirectly, the purchase of, rental of, or investment in property, goods, or services. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401