Terms Used In California Codes > Civil Code > Division 2 > Part 2 > Title 2 > Chapter 1 - Estates in General

• Active militia: means the active militia as defined by §. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Adult: means an individual who is at least 18 years of age. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Agent: means an individual who meets either of the following criteria:

  California Health and Safety Code 7150.10

• Anatomical gift: means a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor's death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Armed services: means the armed services as defined by §. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Beneficiary: means a person to whom a donative transfer of property is made or that person's successor in interest, and:

  California Probate Code 24

• 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}
• Board of trustees: means the legislative body of a district. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Child: means any individual entitled to take as a child under this code by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. See California Probate Code 26
• 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.
• Community property: means :

  California Probate Code 28

• Conservatee: includes a limited conservatee. See California Probate Code 29
• Conservator: includes a limited conservator. See California Probate Code 30
• Conservator: means the conservator of the estate, or the limited conservator of the estate to the extent that the powers and duties of the limited conservator are specifically and expressly provided by the order appointing the limited conservator. See California Probate Code 2400
• Conservator: means (1) the conservator of the estate or (2) the limited conservator of the estate to the extent that the powers and duties of the limited conservator are specifically and expressly provided by the order appointing the limited conservator. See California Probate Code 2600
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• County: includes city and county. See California Health and Safety Code 14
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Decedent: means a deceased individual whose body or part is or may be the source of an anatomical gift. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• department: means State Department of Health Services. See California Health and Safety Code 20
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Director: means "State Director of Health Services. See California Health and Safety Code 21
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Disinterested witness: means a witness other than the spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandchild, grandparent, or guardian of the individual who makes, amends, revokes, or refuses to make an anatomical gift, or another adult who exhibited special care and concern for the individual. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• District: means a public cemetery district created pursuant to this part or any of its statutory predecessors. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Document of gift: means a donor card or other record used to make an anatomical gift. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Domestic partner: means one of two persons who have filed a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the Secretary of State pursuant to Division 2. See California Probate Code 37
• Domestic partner: means two adults who have chosen to share one another's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring, and are qualified and registered with the Secretary of State as domestic partners in accordance with Division 2. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Domestic partner: means a person who is registered under §. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Donor: means an individual whose body or part is the subject of an anatomical gift. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Donor registry: means a database that contains records of anatomical gifts and amendments to or revocations of anatomical gifts, including, but not limited to, the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Estate: means all of the conservatee's or ward's personal property, wherever located, and real property located in this state. See California Probate Code 2400
• Estate: means all of the conservatee's or ward's personal property, wherever located, and real property located in this state. See California Probate Code 2600
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Eye bank: means a person that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law to engage in the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage, or distribution of human eyes or portions of human eyes. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• 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.
• Family member: means any spouse, by marriage or otherwise, domestic partner, child or stepchild, by natural birth or adoption, parent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, parent-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew, niece, aunt, uncle, first cousin, or any person denoted by the prefix "grand" or "great" or the spouse of any of these persons. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: means personal representative, trustee, guardian, conservator, attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney, custodian under the California Uniform Transfer To Minors Act (Part 9 (commencing with Section 3900) of Division 4), or other legal representative subject to this code. See California Probate Code 39
• Financial institution: means a state or national bank, state or federal savings and loan association or credit union, or like organization. See California Probate Code 40
• Firefighter: means a firefighter as defined by Section 1797. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• 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}
• 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.
• Guardian: means the guardian of the estate. See California Probate Code 2400
• Guardian: means the guardian of the estate. See California Probate Code 2600
• Guardian: means a person appointed by a court to make decisions regarding the support, care, education, health, or welfare of an individual. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Hospital: means a facility licensed as a hospital under the law of any state or a facility operated as a hospital by the United States, a state, or a subdivision of a state. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Identification card: means an identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Instrument: means a will, a document establishing or modifying a trust, a deed, or any other writing that designates a beneficiary or makes a donative transfer of property. See California Probate Code 45
• interested person: includes any of the following:

  California Probate Code 48

• Interment right: means the rights held by the owner to use or control the use of a plot authorized by this part, for the interment of human remains, including both of the following rights:

  California Health and Safety Code 9002

• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Know: means to have actual knowledge. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• 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.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Minor: means an individual who is under 18 years of age. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Nonresident: means a person who does not reside within a district or does not pay property taxes on property located in a district. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• 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.
• Organ procurement organization: means a person designated by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services as an organ procurement organization. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Original bill: A bill which is drafted by a committee. It is introduced by the committee or subcommittee chairman after the committee votes to report it.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parent: means any individual entitled to take as a parent under this code by intestate succession from the child whose relationship is involved. See California Probate Code 54
• Parent: means a parent whose parental rights have not been terminated. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Part: means an organ, an eye, or tissue of a human being. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Peace officer: means a peace officer as defined by §. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Person: means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, or other entity. See California Probate Code 56
• Person: means any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or company. See California Health and Safety Code 19
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: means executor, administrator, administrator with the will annexed, special administrator, successor personal representative, public administrator acting pursuant to Section 7660, or a person who performs substantially the same function under the law of another jurisdiction governing the person's status. See California Probate Code 58
• Physician: means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under the law of any state. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Principal county: means the county having all or the greater portion of the entire assessed value, as shown on the last equalized assessment roll of the county or counties, of all taxable property within a district. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Probate: Proving a will
• Procurement organization: means an eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue bank. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Professional fiduciary: means a person who is a professional fiduciary as defined under subdivision (f) of §. See California Probate Code 60.1
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership and includes both real and personal property and any interest therein. See California Probate Code 62
• property: includes property real and personal. See California Civil Code 14
• Prospective donor: means an individual who is dead or near death and has been determined by a procurement organization to have a part that could be medically suitable for transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Real property: includes a leasehold interest in real property. See California Probate Code 68
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reasonably available: means able to be contacted by a procurement organization, without undue effort, and willing and able to act in a timely manner consistent with existing medical criteria necessary for the making of an anatomical gift. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Recipient: means an individual into whose body a decedent's part has been, or is intended to be, transplanted. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Refusal: means a record created under Section 7150. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Security: includes any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas, or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a title or lease, collateral trust certificate, transferable share, voting trust certificate or, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or any certificate of interest or participation, any temporary or interim certificate, receipt, or certificate of deposit for, or any warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing. See California Probate Code 70
• Sign: means , to do either of the following with the present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

  California Health and Safety Code 7150.10

• Spouse: includes "registered domestic partner" as required by §. See California Health and Safety Code 12.2
• Spouse: includes domestic partner, as defined in Section 37 of this code, as required by §. See California Probate Code 72
• State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 23
• State: includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See California Probate Code 74
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• subscription: includes mark when the signer or subscriber can not write, such signer's or subscriber's name being written near the mark by a witness who writes his own name near the signer's or subscriber's name. See California Health and Safety Code 18
• Technician: means an individual determined to be qualified to remove or process parts by an appropriate organization that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Tenancy by the entirety: A type of joint tenancy between husband and wife that is recognized in some States. Neither party can sever the joint tenancy relationship; when a spouse dies, the survivor acquires full title to the property.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tissue: means a portion of the human body other than an organ or an eye. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Tissue bank: means a person that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law to engage in the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage, or distribution of tissue. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
• Trust: includes the following:

  California Probate Code 82

• Trust company: means an entity that has qualified to engage in and conduct a trust business in this state. See California Probate Code 83
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Voter: means a voter as defined by §. See California Health and Safety Code 9002
• Will: includes codicil and any testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor or revokes or revises another will. See California Probate Code 88
• will: includes codicil. See California Civil Code 14