Terms Used In Iowa Code > Chapter 651 - Partition

• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Ascendant: means an individual who precedes another individual in lineage in the direct line of ascent from the other individual. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• clerk: means clerk of the court in which the action or proceeding is brought or is pending; and the words "clerk's office" mean the office of that clerk. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Collateral: means an individual who is related to another individual under the law of intestate succession of this state but who is not the other individual's ascendant or descendant. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Cotenant: means a person holding title to real property under tenancy in common ownership. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• deed: is a pplied to an instrument conveying lands, but does not imply a sealed instrument; and the words "bond" and "indenture" do not necessarily imply a seal, and the word "undertaking" means a promise or security in any form. See Iowa Code 4.1
• 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.
• Descendant: means an individual who follows another individual in lineage in the direct line of descent from the other individual. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• 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.
• 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.
• following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
• 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.
• Heirs property: means real property held in tenancy in common that satisfies all of the following requirements as of the date of the filing of a partition action:
   a. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• 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}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Owelty: means an equitable remedy in a partition action used to equalize the value of the property a party receives through the payment of a sum of money from a recipient of a higher value property to the recipient of a lower value property. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Partition by sale: means a court-ordered sale of property subject to partition. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Partition in kind: means a court-ordered division of property subject to partition into physically distinct and separately titled parcels. See Iowa Code 651.1
• person: means individual, corporation, limited liability company, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity. See Iowa Code 4.1
• personal property: include money, goods, chattels, evidences of debt, and things in action. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Probate: Proving a will
• property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
• real property: include lands, tenements, hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Iowa Code 651.1
• Recording: when applied to the official public records of a probate or other court, includes filing. See Iowa Code 614.29
• Records: includes probate and other official public records, as well as records in the office of the county recorder. See Iowa Code 614.29
• Relative: means an ascendant, descendant, or collateral or an individual otherwise related to another individual by blood, marriage, adoption, or other law of this state. See Iowa Code 651.1
• 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.
• security: includes , but is not limited to, a certificated security, an uncertificated security, and a security account. See Iowa Code 633D.2
• State: includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See Iowa Code 633D.2
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.