Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes > Chapter 15 - Connecticut Uniform Electronic Transactions Act

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• An institution of higher education: means "institution of higher education" as defined in Title IV, Part B of the Higher Education Act of 1965. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-202
• Ancillary administration: Probate administration of property (usually real property) owned in a State other than the one in which the decedent had his (her) principal residence at the time of death.
• 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.
• another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• aquaculture: means the farming of the waters of the state and tidal wetlands and the production of protein food, including fish, oysters, clams, mussels and other molluscan shellfish, on leased, franchised and public underwater farm lands. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Assessor: means the person responsible for establishing property assessments for purposes of a town's grand list and includes a board of assessors. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• 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.
• Authority: means the State of Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority created by §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• 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.
• banks: shall include all incorporated banks. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Board: means the board of directors of the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation, as provided in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-202
• Bonds: means bonds of the authority issued under the provisions of this chapter, including refunding bonds, notwithstanding that the same may be secured by mortgage or the full faith and credit of the authority or the full faith and credit of a participating institution for higher education, a participating health care institution, a participating corporation, a participating nursing home or a participating qualified nonprofit organization or any other lawfully pledged security of a participating institution for higher education, a participating health care institution, a participating corporation, a participating nursing home or a participating qualified nonprofit organization. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• company: means any person, partnership, association, company, limited liability company or corporation, except an incorporated municipality. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-1
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority: means the authority established pursuant to §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-202
• Connecticut Higher Education Supplemental Loan Authority: means the Connecticut Higher Education Supplemental Loan Authority established as a subsidiary of the authority with powers granted pursuant to chapter 187b. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Connecticut Student Loan Foundation: means the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation established pursuant to chapter 187a that is a subsidiary of the authority as provided in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Corporation: means the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation that is a subsidiary of the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority as provided in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-202
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deposit account: includes a share account of a savings and loan association. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• farm: includes farm buildings, and accessory buildings thereto, nurseries, orchards, ranges, greenhouses, hoophouses and other temporary structures or other structures used primarily for the raising and, as an incident to ordinary farming operations, the sale of agricultural or horticultural commodities. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• farming: include cultivation of the soil, dairying, forestry, raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, including horses, bees, the production of honey, poultry, fur-bearing animals and wildlife, and the raising or harvesting of oysters, clams, mussels, other molluscan shellfish or fish. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: A government corporation that insures the deposits of all national and state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. ^{Source: OCC}
• Federally guaranteed security: means any security, investment or evidence of indebtedness which is either directly or indirectly insured or guaranteed, in whole or in part, as to the payment of principal and interest, by the United States of America or any agency or instrumentality thereof. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Field review: means the process by which an assessor, a member of an assessor's staff or person designated by an assessor examines each parcel of real property in its neighborhood setting, compares observable attributes to those listed on such parcel's corresponding property record, makes any necessary corrections based on such observation and verifies that such parcel's attributes are accounted for in the valuation being developed for a revaluation. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• 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.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• fully inspect: means to measure or verify the exterior dimensions of a building or structure and to enter and examine the interior of such building or structure in order to observe and record or verify the characteristics and conditions thereof, provided permission to enter such interior is granted by the property owner or an adult occupant. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• 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.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Health care institution: means (1) any nonprofit, state-aided hospital or other health care institution, including The University of Connecticut Health Center, which is entitled, under the laws of the state, to receive assistance from the state by means of a grant made pursuant to a budgetary appropriation made by the General Assembly, (2) any other hospital or other health care institution which is licensed, or any nonprofit, nonstock corporation which shall receive financing or shall undertake to construct or acquire a project which is or will be eligible to be licensed, as an institution under the provisions of sections 19a-490 to 19a-503, inclusive, or any nonprofit, nonstock, nonsectarian facility which is exempt from taxation under the provisions of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• 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}
• infancy: shall be deemed to refer to a person under the age of eighteen years and any person eighteen years of age or over shall be an adult for all purposes whatsoever and have the same legal capacity, rights, powers, privileges, duties, liabilities and responsibilities as persons heretofore had at twenty-one years of age, and "age of majority" shall be deemed to be eighteen years. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1d
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institution for higher education: means (1) an educational institution situated within this state which by virtue of law or charter is a nonprofit educational institution empowered to provide a program of education beyond the high school level. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• intellectual disability: means a significant limitation in intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior that originated during the developmental period before eighteen years of age. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1g
• 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}
• 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.
• 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.
• keeper: means a person who has been given authority by an officer authorized to serve a tax warrant to act in the state's interest to secure the income of a business for the state and, when it is in the best interest of the state, to force the cessation of such business's operation, upon the failure of such business to pay taxes owed to the state. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-35
• 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}
• legislative body: means : (1) As applied to unconsolidated towns, the town meeting. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• 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.
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• month: means a calendar month, and the word "year" means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Nursing home: means any institution which is or will be eligible to be licensed as an institution under sections 19a-490 to 19a-503, inclusive, or a facility which (1) provides chronic and convalescent nursing care, (2) is a rest home with nursing facilities, (3) provides health care facilities for the handicapped, (4) is a home for elderly persons or physically handicapped or mentally handicapped persons or (5) is a continuing care facility registered with the Department of Social Services, pursuant to chapter 319f. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: shall include affirmations in cases where by law an affirmation may be used for an oath, and, in like cases, the word "swear" shall include the word "affirm". See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• 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.
• Ordinance: means an enactment under the provisions of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Outlays: Outlays are payments made (generally through the issuance of checks or disbursement of cash) to liquidate obligations. Outlays during a fiscal year may be for payment of obligations incurred in prior years or in the same year.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Participating corporation: means any nonprofit corporation created by a participating health care institution or a participating institution for higher education, or by one or more of them in combination, and to which there has been or will be transferred all right, title and interest in a project for the sole purpose of operating such project on behalf of such participating institution or institutions for the life of the bonds issued to finance such project, provided upon retirement of all of such bonds, all right, title and interest in the project shall revert to and vest in the participating institution for higher education or the participating health care institution or jointly in both such institutions. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Participating health care institution: means a health care institution which, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, undertakes the financing and construction or acquisition of a project or undertakes the refunding or refinancing of obligations or of a mortgage, loan or advances made or given for the cost of a project as provided in and permitted by this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Participating institution for higher education: means an institution for higher education which, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, shall undertake the financing and construction or acquisition of a project or shall undertake the refunding or refinancing of obligations or of a mortgage, or advances made or given for the costs of a project, as provided in and permitted by this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Participating nursing home: means a nursing home which, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, undertakes the financing and construction or acquisition of a project or undertakes the refunding or refinancing of obligations or of a mortgage, loans or advances made or given for the costs of a project as provided in and permitted by this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Participating qualified nonprofit organization: means a qualified nonprofit organization which, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, shall undertake the financing and construction or acquisition of a project or shall undertake the refunding or refinancing of obligations, or of a mortgage, loan or advances made or given to it to finance, in anticipation of permanent financing or donation from an outside source, the cost of a project, as provided in and permitted by this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• 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 any individual, partnership, company, limited liability company, public or private corporation, society, association, trustee, executor, administrator or other fiduciary or custodian. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• public buildings: shall include a statehouse, courthouse, townhouse, arsenal, magazine, prison, community correctional center, almshouse, market or other building belonging to the state, or to any town, city or borough in the state, and any church, chapel, meetinghouse or other building generally used for religious worship, and any college, academy, schoolhouse or other building generally used for literary instruction. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Qualified nonprofit organization: means any private, nonprofit organization qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as the same may be amended from time to time, other than a health care institution, nursing home or institution for higher education. See Connecticut General Statutes 10a-178
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• railroad company: shall be construed to mean and include all corporations, trustees, receivers or other persons, that lay out, construct, maintain or operate a railroad, unless such meaning would be repugnant to the context or to the manifest intention of the General Assembly. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means all the property described in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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.
• Revaluation zone: means one of five geographic areas in the state established by the secretary utilizing the boundaries of the planning regions. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• revalue: means to establish the present true and actual value of all real property in a town as of a specific assessment date. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• savings banks: shall include savings banks, societies for savings and savings societies. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, or said secretary's designee. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• serving officer: includes any state marshal, constable or employee of such state collection agency designated for such purpose by a state collection agency and any person so designated by the Labor Commissioner. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-35
• 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.
• state collection agency: includes the Treasurer, the Commissioner of Revenue Services and any other state official, board or commission authorized by law to collect taxes payable to the state and any duly appointed deputy of any such official, board or commission. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-35
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• succeeding: when used by way of reference to any section or sections, mean the section or sections next preceding, next following or next succeeding, unless some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• tax: includes not only the principal of any tax but also all interest, penalties, fees and other charges added thereto by law. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-35
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• 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.
• Town: means any town, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough. See Connecticut General Statutes 12-62
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
• Voters: means those persons qualified to vote under the provisions of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1