Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 48 > Nonprofit Corporations > Chapter 51 - General Provisions

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Authorized shares: means the shares of all classes a domestic or foreign corporation is authorized to issue. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• 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 directors: means the governing board of a corporation, whether denominated the board of directors or otherwise, except that no person or group of persons is the board of directors because of powers delegated to that person or group pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Business: includes every trade, occupation, profession, investment activity and other lawful purpose for gain or the preservation of assets whether or not carried on for profits. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Bylaws: means the code or codes of rules (other than the charter) adopted pursuant to chapters 51-68 of this title for the regulation or management of the affairs of the corporation irrespective of the name or names by which such rules are designated. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Charter: includes amended and restated charters and articles of merger. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Chief administrative officer of the county highway department: means the officer or entity having the general control and authority over the county highway department in accordance with §. See Tennessee Code 5-12-202
• Class: when used with reference to membership interests, means a category of membership interests that differs in one (1) or more rights or preferences from another category of membership interests of the LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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
• Confirmation of good standing: means confirmation by the commissioner of revenue issued through electronic communication to the secretary of state or a certificate of tax clearance that at the time such confirmation is issued an LLC or a foreign LLC is current on all taxes and penalties to the satisfaction of the commissioner. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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.
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Court: includes every court and judge having jurisdiction in the case. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Delegates: means those persons elected or appointed to vote in a representative assembly for the election of a director or directors or on other matters. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and, if authorized in accordance with §. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Directors: means natural persons, designated in the charter or bylaws or elected or appointed by the incorporators, and their successors and natural persons elected or appointed to act as members of the board, irrespective of the names or titles by which such persons are described. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Dissolution: means that the LLC has incurred an event under §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Document: means :
  (A) Any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• domestic corporation: means a corporation for profit, which is not a foreign corporation, incorporated under or subject to the Tennessee Business Corporation Act, compiled in chapters 11-27 of this title, as amended. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Electronic record: means information that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in paper form through an automated process used in conventional commercial practice, unless otherwise authorized in accordance with §. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Employee: includes an officer but not a director. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Entity: includes the following, whether foreign or domestic: LLCs. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• 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.
• 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.
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation for profit incorporated under a law other than the laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Foreign nonprofit corporation: means a corporation incorporated under a law other than the law of this state, which would be a nonprofit corporation if incorporated under the laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Healthcare sharing ministry: means a nonprofit corporation that:
  (A) Is tax-exempt under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Individual: includes the estate of an incompetent or deceased individual. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest: means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of an unincorporated entity:
  (A) The right to receive distributions from the entity either in the ordinary course or upon liquidation. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• 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.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Member: means a person reflected in the required records of an LLC as the owner of some governance rights of a membership interest of the LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Membership: means the rights and obligations a member has pursuant to a corporation's charter, bylaws and chapters 51-68 of this title. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Month: means the time from any day of any month to the corresponding day of the succeeding month, if any, and if none, the last day of the succeeding month. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mutual benefit corporation: means a domestic corporation which becomes by operation of law a mutual benefit corporation pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• National Register: means that listing of the state's historic, archaeological, architectural, cultural, and environmental resources as nominated by the state liaison officer and which is kept by the national park service, the United States department of the interior, pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, Pub. See Tennessee Code 11-15-102
• 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.
• Organic document: means a public organic document or a private organic document. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Organic law: means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation or unincorporated entity. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• 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 a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Person: includes individual and entity. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Principal office: means the office (in or out of this state) so designated in the annual report where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Private organic document: means any document (other than the public organic document, if any) that determines the internal governance of an unincorporated entity. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public benefit corporation: means a domestic corporation which becomes by operation of law a public benefit corporation pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Public body: means the state, counties, municipalities, metropolitan governments, the historic commission of any state, county, municipal, or metropolitan government, and park or recreation authorities. See Tennessee Code 11-15-102
• Public organic document: means the document, if any, that is filed of public record to create an unincorporated entity. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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
• Registered office: means the place in this state designated in the articles as the registered office of the LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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: means a governor, manager, employee or other agent of a foreign LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• River: means a flowing body of water or a section, portion or tributary thereof, including rivers, streams, creeks, branches, or small lakes. See Tennessee Code 11-13-102
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Scenic easement: means an easement in land which:
  (i) Is held for the benefit of the people of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 11-15-102
• Secretary: means the corporate officer to whom the bylaws or the board of directors has delegated responsibility under §. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Secretary of state: means the person who holds the office of secretary of state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Series: means a category of membership interests, within a class of membership interests, that have some of the same rights and preferences as other membership interests within the same class, but that differ in one (1) or more rights and preferences from another category of membership interests within that class. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Share: means the unit into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• signature: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a document:
  (A) To execute or adopt a tangible symbol to a document, and includes any manual, facsimile, or conformed signature. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subscription: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Tennessee Register: means that listing of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in Tennessee history, architecture, archaeology, and culture kept by the Tennessee historical commission pursuant to title 4, chapter 11, part 2. See Tennessee Code 11-15-102
• Termination: means the end of an LLC's existence as a legal entity and occurs when the articles of termination are filed with the secretary of state under §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Unincorporated entity: means an organization or artificial legal person that either has a separate legal existence or has the power to acquire an estate in real property in its own name and that is not any of the following: a domestic or foreign business or nonprofit corporation, an estate, a trust, a state, the United States, or a foreign government. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• United States: includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Voting power: means the total number of votes entitled to be cast for the election of directors at the time the determination of voting power is made, excluding a vote which is contingent upon the happening of a condition or event that has not occurred at the time. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• written: means any information in the form of a document. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• 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