Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes > Chapter 144 > WATER POLLUTION

• 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.
• Commission: means the Public Utilities Commission. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01
• 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.
• Construction: means any clearing of land, excavation, or other action that would adversely affect the natural environment of the site or route but does not include changes needed for temporary use of sites or routes for nonutility purposes, or uses in securing survey or geological data, including necessary borings to ascertain foundation conditions. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• 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.
• High-voltage transmission line: means a conductor of electric energy and associated facilities designed for and capable of operation at a nominal voltage of 100 kilovolts or more and is greater than 1,500 feet in length. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01
• 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.
• Person: shall mean an individual, partnership, joint venture, private or public corporation, association, firm, public service company, cooperative, political subdivision, municipal corporation, government agency, public utility district, or any other entity, public or private, however organized. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01
• Person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Route: means the location of a high voltage transmission line between two end points. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01
• Site: means the location of a large electric power generating plant. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Utility: shall mean any entity engaged or intending to engage in this state in the generation, transmission, or distribution of electric energy including, but not limited to, a private investor-owned utility, cooperatively owned utility, and a public or municipally owned utility. See Minnesota Statutes 216E.01