Terms Used In California Codes > Civil Code > Division 4 > Part 6 > Title 2 > Chapter 1 - General Provisions

• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• 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.
• 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.
• Art dealer: means a person engaged in the business of selling works of fine art, other than a person exclusively engaged in the business of selling goods at public auction. See California Civil Code 1738
• art dealer: includes an auctioneer who sells these works at public auction, but excludes persons, not otherwise defined or treated as art dealers herein, who are consignors or principals of auctioneers. See California Civil Code 1740
• Artist: means the person who creates a work of fine art or, if that person is deceased, that person's heir, legatee, or personal representative. See California Civil Code 1738
• Artist: means the person who created the image which is contained in, or constitutes, the master or conceived of, and approved the image which is contained in, or constitutes, the master. See California Civil Code 1740
• 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.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• 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.
• 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 authenticity: means a written or printed description of the multiple which is to be sold, exchanged, or consigned by an art dealer. See California Civil Code 1740
• 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.
• Consignment: means that no title to, estate in, or right to possession of, fine art, superior to that of the consignor shall vest in the consignee, notwithstanding the consignee's power or authority to transfer and convey to a third person all of the right, title and interest of the consignor in and to such fine art. See California Civil Code 1738
• Consumer: means an individual who seeks or acquires, by purchase or lease, any goods or services for personal, family, or household purposes. See California Civil Code 1761
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• County: includes "city and county. See California Public Resources Code 14
• creditor: means the state or the department or agency of the state seeking to collect the liability. See California Code of Civil Procedure 688.040
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• debtor: means the debtor from whom the liability is sought to be collected. See California Code of Civil Procedure 688.040
• 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.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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:
• Districts: means school districts of every kind or class. See California Education Code 35514
• 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}
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fine art: means a painting, sculpture, drawing, work of graphic art (including an etching, lithograph, offset print, silk screen, or a work of graphic art of like nature), a work of calligraphy, or a work in mixed media (including a collage, assemblage, or any combination of the foregoing art media). See California Civil Code 1738
• Former district: means a school district that has been wholly included in another school district, or has had all of its territory made part of two or more other school districts, through any action taken pursuant to Section 35511 or through a lapsation pursuant to Section 35780. See California Education Code 35514
• 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
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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}
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Limited edition: means fine art multiples produced from a master, all of which are the same image and bear numbers or other markings to denote the limited production thereof to a stated maximum number of multiples, or are otherwise held out as limited to a maximum number of multiples. See California Civil Code 1740
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See California Civil Code 14
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• New district: means a school district that is formed from all or portions of one or more other school districts by an action to reorganize taken pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 35511. See California Education Code 35514
• 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 any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation, or company. See California Government Code 17
• Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association or other group, however organized. See California Civil Code 1738
• Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, or other entity, however organized. See California Civil Code 1740
• Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, or other group, however organized. See California Civil Code 1761
• Person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• print: means a multiple produced by, but not limited to, engraving, etching, woodcutting, lithography, and serigraphy, and means multiples produced or developed from photographic negatives, or any combination thereof. See California Civil Code 1740
• Proofs: means multiples which are the same as, and which are produced from the same master as, the multiples in a limited edition, but which, whether so designated or not, are set aside from and are in addition to the limited edition to which they relate. See California Civil Code 1740
• property: includes property real and personal. See California Civil Code 14
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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.
• 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.
• Spouse: includes "registered domestic partner" as required by §. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• State: includes the District of Columbia and the territories when applied to the different parts of the United States, and the words "United States" may include the district and territories. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• state agency: includes every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission. See California Government Code 11000
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which the term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Government Code 10
• 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.
• vacation credits: means vacation credits accumulated by a state employee pursuant to §. See California Code of Civil Procedure 704.113
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• will: includes codicil. See California Civil Code 14
• Writing: includes printing and typewriting. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17