Terms Used In New York Laws > Eminent Domain Procedure > Article 3 - Offer and Negotiations

• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• board: means a community services board for services to individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities, those suffering from alcoholism, alcohol abuse, substance abuse or substance dependence. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• capital costs: means the costs of a local government, a voluntary agency, or the facilities development corporation with respect to the acquisition of real property estates, interests, and cooperative interests in realty, their design, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement, original furnishings and equipment, site development, and appurtenances of a local facility. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• director: means the director of community services, who is the chief executive officer of a local governmental unit, by whatever title known. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• local governmental unit: means the unit of local government given authority in accordance with this chapter by local government to provide local services. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• local services: includes services for individuals with mental illness or developmental disabilities whose conditions, including but not limited to cerebral palsy and epilepsy, are associated with mental disabilities, and those suffering from alcoholism, alcohol abuse, substance abuse or substance dependence, which are provided by a local government or by a voluntary agency pursuant to a contract with a local governmental unit or the office of mental health. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• 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.
• operating costs: means expenditures, excluding capital costs, incurred in the operation and maintenance of the community mental health, developmental disabilities, and alcoholism services board and of local facilities in accordance with this article and the regulations of the commissioner, by a local government or by a voluntary agency pursuant to a contract with a local governmental unit. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.