Terms Used In Washington Code > Chapter 9.16 - Brands and marks, crimes relating to

• 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.
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• basic royalty: means the royalty reserved in a lease. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• 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}
• Certificate of clearance: means a permit prescribed by the department for the transportation or the delivery of oil, gas, or product. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• 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.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• 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 natural resources. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Development unit: means the maximum area of a pool which may be drained efficiently and economically by one well. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Division order: means an instrument showing percentage of royalty or rental divisions among royalty owners. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Field: means the general area which is underlaid by at least one pool and includes the underground reservoir or reservoirs containing oil or gas, or both. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• 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.
• Gas: means all natural gas, all gaseous substances, and all other fluid or gaseous hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subsection (12) of this section, including but not limited to wet gas, dry gas, residue gas, condensate, and distillate, as those terms are generally understood in the petroleum industry. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• illegal gas: means oil or gas that has been produced from any well within the state in violation of this chapter or any rule or order of the department. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Illegal product: means any product derived in whole or part from illegal oil or illegal gas. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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}
• Interested person: means a person with an ownership, basic royalty, or leasehold interest in oil or gas within an existing or proposed development unit or unitized pool. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• 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.
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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}
• Lessee: means the lessee under an oil and gas lease, or the owner of any land or mineral rights who has the right to conduct or carry on any oil and gas development, exploration and operation thereon, or any person so operating for himself, herself, or others. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Oil: means crude petroleum, oil, and all hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are in the liquid phase in the original reservoir conditions and are produced and recovered at the wellhead in liquid form. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Operator: means the person who operates a well or unit or who has been designated or accepted by the owners to operate the well or unit, and who is responsible for compliance with the department's rules and policies. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: means the person who has the right to develop, operate, drill into, and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas that he or she produces therefrom, either for that person or for that person and others. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• 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: may be construed to include the United States, this state, or any state or territory, or any public or private corporation or limited liability company, as well as an individual. See Washington Code 1.16.080
• Person: means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or representative of any kind and includes any governmental or political subdivision or any agency thereof. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas, or both. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Pooling: means the integration or combination of two or more tracts into an area sufficient to constitute a development unit of the size for one well as prescribed by the department. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Product: means any commodity made from oil or gas. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Protect correlative rights: means that the action or regulation by the department should afford a reasonable opportunity to each person entitled thereto to recover or receive without causing waste his or her fair and reasonable share of the oil and gas in this tract or tracts or its equivalent. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• public lands: means lands and areas belonging to or held in trust by the state, including tide and submerged lands of the Pacific Ocean or any arm thereof and lands of every kind and nature including mineral rights reserved to the state. See Washington Code 79.14.010
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Royalty: means a right to or interest in oil or gas or the value from or attributable to production, other than the right or interest of a lessee, owner, or operator, as defined herein. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supervisor: means the state oil and gas supervisor. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• 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.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• 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.
• Unitization: means the operation of all or part of a field or reservoir as a single entity for operating purposes. See Washington Code 78.52.010
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.