Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 13.1 > Chapter 8 - Retail Franchising Act

• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Controlling person: means a natural person who is an officer, director, or partner, or who occupies a similar status or performs a similar function, of a franchisor organized as a corporation, partnership, or other entity, or any person who possesses, directly or indirectly, the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a franchisor, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract, or otherwise. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Courts of record: means the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and the circuit courts. See Virginia Code 1-212
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Franchise: means a written contract or agreement between two or more persons, by which:

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-559

• Franchisee: means a person to whom a franchise is granted or sold. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Franchisor: means a person, including a subfranchisor, who grants or sells, or offers to grant or sell, a franchise. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• offer to sell: includes every attempt to offer to dispose of or grant, and every solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise or an interest in a franchise for value. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Place of business: means a building or portion thereof from which the goods or services authorized by the franchise are sold or offered for sale in person by the franchisee or employees or agents of the franchisee, or a truck or van used in the sale of such goods which is of a type designated by the franchisor and is equipped and marked in conformance with requirements of the franchisor. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Preopening obligations: means the franchisor's obligations to provide to the franchisee, prior to the opening of the franchisee's business, real estate, improvements, equipment, inventory, training, or other items to be included in the offering. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• sell: includes every contract or agreement of sale or grant of, contract to sell, or disposition of a franchise or interest in a franchise for value. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Subfranchisor: means a person who is authorized by a franchisor to grant a franchise within a particular geographic region. See Virginia Code 13.1-559
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.