Terms Used In California Codes > Government Code > Title 2 > Division 3 > Part 5.5 > Chapter 1 - General Provisions

• Account: means an arrangement under a terms-of-service agreement in which the custodian carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of the user or provides goods or services to the user. See California Probate Code 871
• Action: includes a civil action and a criminal action. See California Evidence Code 105
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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}
• business: includes every kind of business, governmental activity, profession, occupation, calling, or operation of institutions, whether carried on for profit or not. See California Evidence Code 1270
• Carries: means engages in the transmission of electronic communications. See California Probate Code 871
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Community property: means :

  California Probate Code 28

• compensation: means the remuneration paid out of funds controlled by the employer in payment for the member's services performed during normal working hours or for time during which the member is excused from work because of any of the following:

  California Government Code 20630

• Conduct: includes all active and passive behavior, both verbal and nonverbal. See California Evidence Code 125
• Conservatee: includes a limited conservatee. See California Probate Code 29
• Conservator: includes a limited conservator. See California Probate Code 30
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Court: means the superior court presiding over the judicial proceedings which have been initiated under this code to administer the estate of the deceased user, or, if none, the superior court sitting in the exercise of jurisdiction under this code in the county of the user's domicile, and the court, as defined in this section, shall have exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings brought under this part. See California Probate Code 871
• Custodian: means a person that carries, maintains, processes, receives, or stores a digital asset of a user. See California Probate Code 871
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Declarant: is a person who makes a statement. See California Evidence Code 135
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Devise: when used as a noun, means a disposition of real or personal property by will, and, when used as a verb, means to dispose of real or personal property by will. See California Probate Code 32
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Devisee: means any person designated in a will to receive a devise. See California Probate Code 34
• Digital asset: means an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. See California Probate Code 871
• director: refer to the Department of General Services and the Director of General Services, respectively, unless the context otherwise requires. See California Government Code 14602
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See California Probate Code 871
• Electronic communication service: means a custodian that provides to a user the ability to send or receive an electronic communication. See California Probate Code 871
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Evidence: means testimony, writings, material objects, or other things presented to the senses that are offered to prove the existence or nonexistence of a fact. See California Evidence Code 140
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• expert: means a physician and surgeon, including a psychiatrist, or any person described by subdivision (b), (c), or (e) of Section 1010. See California Evidence Code 240
• 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
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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
• 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.
• former testimony: means testimony given under oath in:

  California Evidence Code 1290

• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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.
• hearing: means the hearing at which a question under this code arises, and not some earlier or later hearing. See California Evidence Code 145
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• Heir: means any person, including the surviving spouse, who is entitled to take property of the decedent by intestate succession under this code. See California Probate Code 44
• Information: means data, text, images, videos, sounds, codes, computer programs, software, databases, or other items with like characteristics. See California Probate Code 871
• 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
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• interested person: includes any of the following:

  California Probate Code 48

• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Law: includes constitutional, statutory, and decisional law. See California Evidence Code 160
• 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}
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• Online tool: means an electronic service provided by a custodian that allows the user, in an agreement distinct from the terms-of-service agreement between the custodian and user, to provide directions for disclosure or nondisclosure of digital assets to a third person. See California Probate Code 871
• 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: 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 an individual, estate, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or other legal entity. See California Probate Code 871
• Person: includes a natural person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or public entity. See California Evidence Code 175
• 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
• Personal representative: means an executor, administrator, special administrator, or person that performs substantially the same function under any other law. See California Probate Code 871
• 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.
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Process: includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature. See California Government Code 22
• 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
• Public employee: means an officer, agent, or employee of a public entity. See California Evidence Code 195
• Public entity: includes a nation, state, county, city and county, city, district, public authority, public agency, or any other political subdivision or public corporation, whether foreign or domestic. See California Evidence Code 200
• Quasi-community property: means the following property, other than community property as defined in Section 28:

  California Probate Code 66

• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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.
• 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 California Probate Code 871
• 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.
• Remote-computing service: means a custodian that provides to a user computer processing services or the storage of digital assets by means of an electronic communications system, as defined in Section 2510(14) of Title 18 of the United States Code. See California Probate Code 871
• 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.
• 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 domestic partner, as defined in Section 37 of this code, as required by §. See California Probate Code 72
• Spouse: includes "registered domestic partner" as required by §. See California Government Code 12.2
• 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 the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Evidence Code 220
• state agency: includes every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission. See California Government Code 11000
• Statement: means (a) oral or written verbal expression or (b) nonverbal conduct of a person intended by him as a substitute for oral or written verbal expression. See California Evidence Code 225
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Terms-of-service agreement: means an agreement that controls the relationship between a user and a custodian. See California Probate Code 871
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Transferee: means the beneficiary, donee, or other recipient of an interest transferred by an instrument. See California Probate Code 81.5
• Transferor: means the testator, settlor, grantor, owner, or other person who executes an instrument. See California Probate Code 81
• Trier of fact: includes (a) the jury and (b) the court when the court is trying an issue of fact other than one relating to the admissibility of evidence. See California Evidence Code 235
• Trust: includes the following:

  California Probate Code 82

• Trustee: includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by a court. See California Probate Code 84
• Trustee: means a fiduciary with legal title to property under an agreement or declaration that creates a beneficial interest in another. See California Probate Code 871
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• unavailable as a witness: means that the declarant is any of the following:

  California Evidence Code 240

• User: means a person that has an account with a custodian. See California Probate Code 871
• Will: includes codicil and any testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor or revokes or revises another will. See California Probate Code 88
• Writing: means handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing, any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combinations thereof, and any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record has been stored. See California Evidence Code 250