Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 3 > Chapter 101 > Subchapter III - Regulatory Provisions, Offenses and Penalties

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Benefited property: means a nonexempt specially-assessed property located within a neighborhood improvement district that benefits from enhanced services and related programs based on a rational nexus test. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• 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.
• Cost of services: includes consulting fees, professional fees, preliminary planning expenditures, feasibility study expenditures, financing costs, administrative costs, and any other expenditures necessary or incidental to the development or provision of enhanced services and related programs. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• District advisory council: means an optional advisory committee comprised of property owners and residents from the neighborhood improvement district that may be established under § 3507 of this title for the purpose of providing recommendations to the neighborhood improvement district management association regarding needed enhanced services within the district. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• Dower: A widow
• Enhanced services: means additional or increased services aimed at improving the ability of property owners and residents to enjoy a safer and healthier neighborhood due to the provision of expanded services, which include services such as district-wide street cleaning, district-wide snow removal, district-wide trash removal, and maintenance of open space. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• 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
• 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}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantee: includes every person to whom a freehold estate or interest is conveyed. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• 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.
• 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.
• Month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Neighborhood: means a limited geographic area situated within an unincorporated area of New Castle County and located in a residential district, the limits of which form the neighborhood improvement district boundaries, as identified on a filed record plan. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• Neighborhood improvement district: means a neighborhood, as identified on a filed record plan, in which a special assessment is levied on designated property, other than exempt property, for the purpose of promoting the general health and welfare of the district, hereinafter referred to as a "NID. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• Neighborhood improvement district management association: means the corporate body that oversees the management of each neighborhood improvement district established pursuant to § 3506 of this title, which hereinafter shall be referred to as a "NIDMA. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• 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.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Rational nexus: means that there is a rational, definable benefit that accrues to any nonexempt property owner assessed a special assessment fee for said benefit in a NID created under this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• 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.
• Residential district: means , for purposes of this chapter, a limited geographical area comprised of real property consisting predominantly of buildings and structures for housing individuals and families, including single-family detached homes, single-family semi-detached homes, townhouses, condominiums, apartments, manufactured homes, modular homes, and any combination of the above. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• Service area: means the area within the boundaries of the NID in which the NIDMA provides or administers enhanced services. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• 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.
• special assessment fee: means the fee assessed on nonexempt properties within a NID levied by the county for purposes of providing enhanced services in a district under § 3508 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Sunset provision: means a provision in the NIDP which, under § 3505 of this title, provides for the dissolution of the NID, unless re-enacted by County Council, on a date up to 5 years from commencement as identified in the approved Final NIDP and in the county ordinance establishing a NID. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 3503
• United States: includes its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Year: means a calendar year, and is equivalent to the words "year of our Lord. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302