Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 18 > Chapter 77 - Suretyship

• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Capital stock: means common or preferred stock or any hybrid security or other equity security issued by a converted stock insurer or other company or entity pursuant to the exercise of subscription rights granted pursuant to the provisions of § 4975(a)(3) of this title. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Commissioner: means the Insurance Commissioner of this State. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Converted stock company: means a stock insurer that converted from a mutual insurer under this chapter, or under the laws of any other jurisdiction, or any successor thereto provided that not less than a majority of the shares of voting stock of such successor are owned by a mutual holding company. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, unless stated otherwise in this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Department: means the Department of Insurance of this State. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Domestic mutual company: means a mutual insurer domiciled in this State. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• 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.
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fish and Wildlife Agent: means a law-enforcement officer employed by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control pursuant to this title and § 8003(13) of Title 29. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• 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}
• 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.
• Infant: means a person who has not reached the age of 18 years. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• 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}
• 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.
• Month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Mutual company: means a mutual insurer that is seeking to convert to a stock insurer under this chapter, including a captive insurance company (notwithstanding § 6916 of this title) that is incorporated as a nonstock corporation and including a foreign mutual insurer that has applied to redomesticate to this State with an intent to file an application to convert from mutual to stock form under this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• 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.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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, a corporation, a limited liability company, a partnership, an association, a joint stock company, a trust, an unincorporated organization, a similar entity, or a combination of the foregoing acting in concert. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Physical injury: means impairment of physical condition or substantial pain. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• plan: means a plan adopted by a mutual company's governing body to convert the mutual company into a stock company in accordance with the requirements of this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Policy: means an insurance policy, including an annuity contract. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real property: is synonymous with the phrase "lands, tenements and hereditaments. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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}
• Right of offset: Banks' legal right to seize funds that a guarantor or debtor may have on deposit to cover a loan in default. It is also known as the right of set-off. ^{Source: OCC}
• savings bank: as used in this chapter , refers to a corporation organized under this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 5 Sec. 1601
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, unless otherwise stated in this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Sequester: To separate. Sometimes juries are sequestered from outside influences during their deliberations.
• Serious physical injury: means physical injury which creates a substantial risk of death, or which causes serious and prolonged disfigurement, prolonged impairment of health or prolonged loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• State: means the State of Delaware. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stock company: means a stock insurer that meets all of the current requirements for admission to do business as a domestic Delaware insurer. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 4972
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• subsidiaries: shall include , in addition to those such corporations where the insurer owns a majority of their stock, those corporations formed or acquired by an insurer where it owns less than a majority of such corporation's voting stock due to the laws of a foreign national which require the insurer to own less than a majority of the voting stock of such subsidiary insurance corporation if it is to operate in that nation. See Delaware Code Title 18 Sec. 1313
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• United States: includes its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Vessel: shall mean every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water or ice. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Waterway management: means those activities necessary to provide for the planning, surveying, design, engineering and construction, or other activities directly related to the maintenance of public waterways, including dredging, channel marking, debris and derelict vessel/structure removal, the beneficial use of sediment, and shoreline and bathymetric survey work for commercial or recreational waterways. See Delaware Code Title 23 Sec. 2112
• Year: means a calendar year, and is equivalent to the words "year of our Lord. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302