Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 5B > Article 1A - West Virginia Rails to Trails Program

• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• articles of bedding: includes upholstered furniture and filling material (as herein defined) and any mattress, pillow, cushion, quilt, bed pad, comforter, upholstered spring bed, headboard, box springs, davenport or day bed, bedsprings, metal couch, metal bed, metal cot, metal cradle, metal bassinette, which is wholly or partly upholstered and is used or intended for use for sleeping, resting or reclining purposes. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Buyer: means a person who buys or contracts to buy goods. See West Virginia Code 46-2-103
• Commissioner: means commissioner of labor. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means a natural person who acquires, or seeks to acquire, the right to possession and use of consumer goods from a dealer. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Damage waiver: means the voiding or disregard by the dealer of any obligation on the part of the consumer to pay the value of the consumer goods or to make payments pursuant to a rent-to-own agreement in the event of loss or damage to the consumer goods in excess of normal wear and tear or the insurance of the value of the consumer goods or of payments pursuant to the rent-to-own agreement in the event of loss or damage to the consumer goods in excess of normal wear and tear. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Debt collector: means any person or organization engaging directly or indirectly in debt collection. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means state department of labor. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• dilution: means the lessening of the capacity of registrant's mark to identify and distinguish goods or services, regardless of the presence or absence of: (A) Competition between the parties. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• 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}
• 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.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Filling material: includes any hair, down, feathers, wool, cotton, kapok, or other soft material used in the manufacture of and for filling articles of bedding or upholstered furniture. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• goods: means goods intended to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Judgment: includes decrees and orders for the payment of money, or the conveyance or delivery of land or personal property, or some interest therein, or any undertaking, bond or recognizance which has the legal effect of a judgment. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• juristic person: includes a firm, partnership, corporation, union, association or other organization capable of suing and being sued in a court of law. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• 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}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• made: includes altering, repairing, finishing or preparing articles of bedding or upholstered furniture or filling materials for sale, including remaking or renovating when done away from the home of the owner. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• mark: includes any trademark or service mark, entitled to registration under this article whether registered or not. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• New: means any material or article which has not been previously used for any purpose, including by-products produced in the manufacture of any fabric and material reclaimed from new fabric: Provided, however, That an article of bedding returned by the purchaser for exchange, alteration, or correction within thirty days after date of delivery after original sale at retail, shall be deemed to be a new article, but if such article is returned later than thirty days after the date of such delivery, such article shall be deemed to be secondhand. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• 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.
• Offense: includes every act or omission for which a fine, forfeiture, or punishment is imposed by law. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Ownership: means the right to enjoy, possess and use consumer goods to the exclusion of other persons, including the right to transfer legal title to such consumer goods or to otherwise control, handle or dispose of such consumer goods, whether or not indicia of such ownership is established by, or otherwise required to be evidenced by, a title-paper, letter, receipt or other document or instrument. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• 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.
• party: includes a natural person or an individual, an organization, partnership or corporation. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Periodic payment: means a payment required to be made by a consumer to have the right to possession and use of consumer goods during a specified time period. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Person: shall include persons, partnerships, corporations and associations. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• personal property: includes goods, chattels, real and personal, money, credits, investments, and the evidences thereof. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Premises: means a particular physical place of business opened to the public by a dealer. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• 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.
• Rent-to-own agreement: means a rental agreement which:

  (i) Transfers the right to possession and use of the rental property from the dealer to the consumer. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5

• Rental agreement: means the bargain, with respect to the rental of consumer goods under a rent-to-own agreement, of the dealer and the consumer as found in their language or by implication from other circumstances including course of dealing or usage of trade or course of performance as provided in this chapter. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Rental contract: means the total legal obligation that results from the rental agreement as affected by this chapter and any other applicable rules of law. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• rental period: means a week, a month or another specific length of time set forth in a rent-to-own agreement, during which such period the consumer has a right to continue possessing and using consumer goods, after having made the periodic rental payment for such period. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retail value: means :

  (A) For items that bear a counterfeit mark and are components of a finished product, the regular selling price of the finished product in which the component would be utilized. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1

• Secondhand: means any material or article of which prior use has been made, except as otherwise provided in this article. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• secretary: means the Secretary of State or the designee of the secretary charged with the administration of this article. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• Seller: means a person who sells or contracts to sell goods. See West Virginia Code 46-2-103
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Signature: means any mark, symbol, facsimile or electronic mark or symbol, that depicts a person's name on any document or record, affixed to the document or record by the person with the intent to authenticate, assert, certify or agree to the matters, validity, information or attestation set forth in the document or record. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• sold: includes offering or exposing for sale or exchange or lease or consigning or delivery in consignment for sale, exchange or lease or holding in possession with like intent. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• Termination: means the cancellation of a rental agreement when the consumer determines that he or she no longer desires to pay periodic payments and retain the right to possession and use of the consumer goods or either party puts an end to the rental agreement for default by the other party in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• Total of payments: means the total of all periodic payments specified in the written agreement which the consumer must pay in order to acquire ownership of the consumer goods without the payment of additional consideration to the dealer. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5
• trade name: means any name used by a person to identify a business or vocation of such person. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• trademark: means any word, name, symbol or device or any combination thereof used by a person to identify and distinguish the goods of such person, including a unique product, from those manufactured and sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is unknown. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Upholstered furniture: means any article of household furniture wholly or partly stuffed or filled with soft material which is used or intended for use for sitting, resting or reclining purposes. See West Virginia Code 47-1A-2
• use: means the bona fide use of a mark in the ordinary course of trade, and not made merely to reserve a right in a mark. See West Virginia Code 47-2-1
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Written agreement: means a written document containing or evidencing the terms of a rent-to-own transaction, reduced to a tangible and legible form by printing, typewriting, computer print-out or any other intentional reduction. See West Virginia Code 46B-1-5