Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 66 > Chapter 36 - Construction Defects

• Action: means any civil action or binding dispute resolution proceeding for damages or indemnity asserting a claim for damage to or loss of commercial property caused by an alleged construction defect, but does not include any civil action or arbitration proceeding asserting a claim for alleged personal injuries arising out of an alleged construction defect. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Claimant: means an owner, including a subsequent purchaser, tenant, or association, who asserts a claim against a prime contractor, remote contractor, or design professional concerning a construction defect. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Commercial property: means all property that is not residential property. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Construction defect: means a deficiency in, or a deficiency arising out of, the design, specifications, surveying, planning, supervision, observation of construction, or construction or remodeling of an improvement resulting from:
  (A) Defective material, products, or components used in the construction or remodeling. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Design professional: means a person licensed in this state as an architect, interior designer, landscape architect, engineer, or surveyor, regardless of whether the person is a prime contractor or remote contractor. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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}
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Notice of claim: means a written notice sent by a claimant to the last known address of a prime contractor, remote contractor, or design professional against whom the claimant asserts a construction defect that describes the claim in reasonable detail sufficient to determine the general nature of the defect, including a general description of the type and location of the construction that the claimant alleges to be defective and any damages claimed to have been caused by the defect. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• 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.
• 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: 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
• 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
• Residential property: means property upon which a dwelling or improvement is constructed or to be constructed consisting of one (1) dwelling unit intended as a residence of a person or family. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• Service: means personal service or delivery by certified mail to the last known address of the addressee, or as otherwise allowed by contract. See Tennessee Code 66-36-101
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105