Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 65 > Chapter 4 - Regulation of Public Utilities by Commission

• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• authorized: means six (6) months after granting of the construction permit by the federal communications commission to the second entity or when the second entity begins offering service in the same cellular geographical area, whichever should first occur. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Beneficial interest: means either of the following:
  (i) The interest of a person as a beneficiary under any trust arrangement pursuant to which a trustee or any other person holds legal or record title to personal or real property for the benefit of the person. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• 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}
• Benefit: means anything reasonably regarded as economic gain, enhancement or advantage, including benefit to any other person in whose welfare the beneficiary is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Caller identification service: means telephone service which notifies telephone subscribers of the telephone number of incoming telephone calls. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Commission: means the Tennessee public utility commission. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Commission: means the Tennessee public utility commission. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• 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.
• Competing telecommunications service provider: means any individual or entity that offers or provides any two-way communications service, telephone service, telegraph service, paging service, or communications service similar to such services and is certificated as a provider of such services after June 6, 1995, unless otherwise exempted from this definition by state or federal law. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• cooperative: shall mean only those nonprofit cooperative entities organized under or otherwise subject to the Rural Electric and Community Services Cooperative Act, compiled in chapter 25 of this title, or the Telephone Cooperative Act, compiled in chapter 29 of this title. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• 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.
• 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.
• Enterprise: means any individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, business trust, union chartered under the laws of this state, or other legal entity, or any unchartered union, association, or group of individuals associated in fact, although not a legal entity, and it includes illicit as well as licit enterprises and governmental, as well as other entities, including criminal gangs, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• 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.
• existing customer: includes a residential subscriber with whom the person or entity making a telephone solicitation has had a prior relationship within the prior twelve (12) months. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• facsimile: means :
  (A) Every process in which electronic signals are transmitted by telephone lines for conversion into written text or other graphic images. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Incumbent local exchange telephone company: means a public utility offering and providing basic local exchange telephone service as defined by §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Interexchange carriers: means companies, other than incumbent local exchange telephone companies, owning facilities in the state which consist of network elements and switches, or other communication transmission equipment used to carry voice, data, image, and video traffic across the local access and transport area (LATA) boundaries within Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• 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.
• 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.
• Local exchange company: includes telecommunications service providers as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Local exchange company: includes telecommunications service providers as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Minor: means any person under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Parent: means a company owning more than fifty percent (50%) of the voting shares, or otherwise a controlling interest, of another company. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• 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.
• Pattern of racketeering activity: means engaging in at least two (2) incidents of racketeering conduct that have the same or similar intents, results, accomplices, victims, or methods of commission or otherwise are interrelated by distinguishing characteristics and are not isolated incidents. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• Person: means a natural person, individual, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association and any other legal or commercial entity however organized and wherever located that telemarkets to citizens located within this state. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Person: means a natural person, individual, partnership, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, any corporation, parent, subsidiary or affiliate thereof, or any other legal or commercial entity however organized and wherever located. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Person: means any individual or entity holding or capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes any personal property, or any interest in personal property, or any right, including bank accounts, debts, corporate stocks, patents or copyrights. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• Property: means anything of value, including, but not limited to, money, real estate, tangible or intangible personal property, including anything severed from land, library material, contract rights, choses-in-action, interests in or claims to wealth, credit, admission or transportation tickets, captured or domestic animals, food and drink, electric or other power. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public utility: includes a wind energy facility, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Racketeering activity: means to commit, to attempt to commit, to conspire to commit, or to solicit, coerce, or intimidate another person to commit an act for financial gain that is a criminal offense involving controlled substances, and the amount of controlled substances involved in the offense is included under §. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means any real property situated in this state or any interest in the real property, including, but not limited to, any lease of or mortgage upon such real property. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Residential subscriber: means a person who has subscribed to residential telephone service from a local exchange company or the other persons living, residing or visiting with such person. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Subsidiary: means a corporation with more than fifty percent (50%) of its outstanding voting shares being owned by its parent or the parent's other subsidiaries. See Tennessee Code 65-4-501
• Telecommunications service provider: means any incumbent local exchange telephone company or certificated individual or entity, or individual or entity operating pursuant to the approval by the former public service commission of a franchise within §. See Tennessee Code 65-4-101
• Telephone solicitation: means any voice communication over a telephone originating from Tennessee or elsewhere that:
  (i) Promotes or encourages, directly or indirectly, the purchase of, rental of, or investment in property, goods, or services. See Tennessee Code 65-4-401
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustee: means any of the following:
  (i) Any person who holds legal or record title to real or personal property in which any other person has a beneficial interest. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Unlawful debt: means any money or other thing of value constituting principal or interest of a debt that is legally unenforceable in this state in whole or in part, because the debt was incurred or contracted in violation of:
  (A) Chapter 17, part 4 of this title, and the amount of controlled substances involved in the violation is included under §. See Tennessee Code 39-12-203
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105