Terms Used In New York Laws > Arts and Cultural Affairs > Title U - Divisions of History and Public Records

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amount: shall include , but is not limited to, any dividend, profit or other distribution, whether in cash or securities, and any interest or other payment on or of principal, including the cash value of any security which has matured or has been called for full or partial redemption or is payable to security owners or former security owners entitled to payments as the result of a merger, consolidation, acquisition or conversion of any type. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Amount: shall mean that term as defined in subdivision seven of section five hundred of this chapter. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• 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.
• 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.
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• board: means "board of directors". See N.Y. Banking Law 1001
• Broker: shall include any individual or corporation engaging in the purchase, sale or exchange of securities for or on behalf of any customer. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Corporation: shall mean any corporation (other than a public corporation as defined in paragraph (b) of this subdivision), joint stock company, association of two or more individuals, committee, partnership, investment company (as defined by, and which is registered under, an act of Congress of the United States entitled the "Investment Company Act of 1940" as amended), unit investment trust or business trust, whether or not for profit. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Corporation: shall include any joint stock company, corporation, association of two or more individuals, committee, public authority, or business trust. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• Corporation: means and includes all banks, trust companies, safe deposit companies, investment companies, mutual trust investment companies, and, to the extent not provided otherwise under any regulation of the superintendent of financial services promulgated pursuant to the provisions of section fourteen-e of this chapter, stock-form savings banks and stock-form savings and loan associations. See N.Y. Banking Law 1001
• Customer: shall include any individual or corporation entering into a contract with a broker or dealer by which such broker or dealer agrees to effect the purchase, sale, or exchange, or to keep custody of any security for or on behalf of such individual or corporation. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: shall include any individual or corporation engaging in any state as a regular business in the purchase, sale or exchange of securities for his or its own account, through a broker or otherwise. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Director: means any member of the governing board of a corporation, whether designated as director, trustee, manager, governor, or by any other title. See N.Y. Banking Law 1001
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Disposition: means the disposal of a record by destruction, sale, gift, transfer to the local government archives, or by other authorized means. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Domestic corporation: shall mean any corporation organized under the laws of this state or under the laws of this state and one or more other states or foreign countries, but shall not mean a banking organization as defined in this chapter. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• 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.
• 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.
• Fiduciary: shall mean any individual or any domestic or foreign corporation holding a security for a resident or receiving, as agent of a corporation or as holder of a security, any amount due or to become due a resident as the holder or owner of a security but shall not mean any individual or corporation so acting by direction of a court in any case where such court has not directed a distribution of such amount or security. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Foreign corporation: shall mean any corporation organized under the laws of a state other than New York or under the laws of a foreign country and doing business in this state or authorized to do business in this state, but shall not mean a banking organization as defined in this chapter. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the town board, village board of trustees, city council, county legislature or board of supervisors, board of education or board of trustees of a school district or board of cooperative educational services, board of fire commissioners or other body authorized by law to govern the affairs of a local government. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• 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.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Local government: means any county, city, town, village, school district, board of cooperative educational services, district corporation, public benefit corporation, public corporation, or other government created under state law that is not a state department, division, board, bureau, commission or other agency, heretofore or hereafter established by law. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Local officer: shall mean and include a local officer as defined in § 2 of the public officers law and any officer of a public benefit corporation. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Office: means in the case of a bank or trust company its principal office, in the case of a safe deposit company, investment company or mutual trust investment company, its principal place of business and in the case of a foreign corporation the place of business designated in its license or its authorization pursuant to article five-C of this chapter, as the case may be, for the oldest agency or branch in this state of such foreign corporation. See N.Y. Banking Law 1001
• 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.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Plea agreement: An arrangement between the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the defendant in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for special considerations. ^Source:
• Presentence report: A report prepared by a court's probation officer, after a person has been convicted of an offense, summarizing for the court the background information needed to determine the appropriate sentence. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Public corporation: shall mean any state and a public corporation as defined in § 66 of the general construction law, but shall not mean an agency or political subdivision of the United States or of a foreign nation. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Public issuer: shall include the United States, the several states and territories thereof, political subdivisions and municipal corporations within such states and territories, foreign countries and political subdivisions and municipal corporations within such foreign countries. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• Record: means any book, paper, map, photograph, or other information-recording device, regardless of physical form or characteristic, that is made, produced, executed, or received by any local government or officer thereof pursuant to law or in connection with the transaction of public business. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Records retention and disposition schedule: means a list or other instrument describing records and their retention periods which is issued by the commissioner of education. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Resident: shall mean :
  
  (a) An individual domiciled in this state;
  
  (b) A domestic corporation;
  
  (c) A banking organization, as defined in section one hundred three of this chapter; and
  
  (d) This state and any public corporation organized under its laws. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retention period: means the minimum length of time that must elapse before a record is eligible for disposition. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 57.17
• Security: shall mean :
  
  (a) Any instrument issued by a corporation or public corporation or any entry on the books and records of such corporation or public corporation evidencing an obligation to make any payment of the principal amount of a debt or of any increment due or to become due thereon; or
  
  (b) Any instrument issued by a corporation to evidence a proprietary interest therein or any intangible interest in a corporation as evidenced by the books and records of the corporation except:
  
  (i) A policy of insurance issued by a mutual insurance corporation, or
  
  (ii) A share issued by a savings and loan association, a building and loan association, or a credit union. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Security: shall include :
  
  (a) Any instrument issued by a corporation or public issuer to evidence an obligation to make any payment of the principal amount of a debt or of any increment due or to become due thereon, or
  
  (b) Any instrument issued by a corporation to evidence a proprietary interest therein except:
  
  (i) A policy of insurance issued by a mutual insurance corporation, or
  
  (ii) A share issued by a savings and loan association, a building and loan association, or a credit union. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Victim Impact Statement: A written or spoken statement by the victim or his or her representative about the physical, emotional, and financial impact of a crime on the victim. The statement is given to the court before sentencing.
• Wages: shall include moneys payable, under contract or otherwise, for services rendered to a domestic or foreign corporation or fiduciary, including but not limited to payment of salaries, commissions, royalties, expenses, employee benefits, and insurance benefits payable by a corporation pursuant to a self-insurance plan, less lawful deductions. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 500
• Wages: shall include moneys payable, under contract or otherwise, for services rendered to a broker or dealer, less lawful deductions. See N.Y. Abandoned Property Law 510