Terms Used In Michigan Laws > Chapter 460 > Act 174 of 2013 - Miss Dig Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act

• Additional assistance: means a response by a facility owner or facility operator to a request made by an excavator during business hours, for help in locating a facility. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• 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.
• Approximate location: means a strip of land at least 36 inches wide, but not wider than the width of the marked facility plus 18 inches on either side of the facility marks. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• 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.
• Blasting: means changing the level or grade of land or rendering, tearing, demolishing, moving, or removing earth, rock, buildings, structures, or other masses or materials by seismic blasting or the detonation of dynamite or any other explosive agent. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Business day: means Monday through Friday, excluding holidays observed by the notification system and posted on the notification system website. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Business hours: means from 7 a. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Caution zone: means the area within 48 inches of either side of the facility marks provided by a facility owner or facility operator. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Commission: means the Michigan public service commission created in section 1 of 1939 PA 3, MCL 460. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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.
• County juvenile agency: means that term as defined in section 2 of the county juvenile agency act, 1998 PA 518, MCL 45. See Michigan Laws 761.1
• Damage: means any impact upon or exposure of an underground facility requiring its repair or replacement due to weakening, partial destruction, or complete destruction of the facility, including, but not limited to, the protective coating, lateral support, cathodic protection, or housing of the facility. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Design ticket: means a communication to the notification system in which a request for information regarding underground facilities for predesign, design, or advance planning purposes, but not marking for excavation or blasting, is made under the procedures described in section 6a. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Dig notice: means a communication to the notification system by an excavator providing notice of intended excavation or blasting activity as required by this act. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Emergency: means a sudden or unforeseen occurrence, including a government-declared emergency, involving a clear and imminent danger to life, health, or property, or imminent danger to the environment, that requires immediate correction in order to restore or to prevent the interruption of essential governmental services, utility services, or the blockage of public transportation and that requires immediate excavation or blasting. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Emergency notice: means a communication to the notification system to alert the facility owners or facility operators of the urgent need for marking the location of a facility due to an emergency. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• 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.
• Excavation: means moving, removing, or otherwise displacing earth, rock, or other material below existing surface grade with power tools or power equipment, including, but not limited to, grading, trenching, tiling, digging, drilling, boring, augering, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing, and pile driving; and wrecking, razing, rending, moving, or removing a structure or mass of materials. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Excavator: means any person performing excavation or blasting. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Facility operator: means a person that controls the operation of a facility. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Facility owner: means a person that owns a facility. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Farm: means that term as defined in section 2 of the Michigan right to farm act, 1981 PA 93, MCL 286. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Farming operations: means plowing, cultivating, planting, harvesting, and similar operations routine to most farms and that are performed on a farm. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Felony: means a violation of a penal law of this state for which the offender, upon conviction, may be punished by imprisonment for more than 1 year or an offense expressly designated by law to be a felony. See Michigan Laws 761.1
• Governmental agency: means the state and its political subdivisions, including counties, townships, cities, villages, or any other governmental entity. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• in writing: shall be construed to include printing, engraving, and lithographing; except that if the written signature of a person is required by law, the signature shall be the proper handwriting of the person or, if the person is unable to write, the person's proper mark, which may be, unless otherwise expressly prohibited by law, a clear and classifiable fingerprint of the person made with ink or another substance. See Michigan Laws 8.3q
• 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.
• Juvenile: means a person within the jurisdiction of the circuit court under section 606 of the revised judicature act of 1961, 1961 PA 236, MCL 600. See Michigan Laws 761.1
• marking: means the temporary identification on the surface grade of the location of a facility in response to a ticket as described in section 7. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Misdemeanor: means a violation of a penal law of this state that is not a felony or a violation of an order, rule, or regulation of a state agency that is punishable by imprisonment or a fine that is not a civil fine. See Michigan Laws 761.1
• Notification system: means MISS DIG System, Inc. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• 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.
• 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, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, governmental agency, department or agency, utility cooperative, or joint stock association, including any trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative thereof. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals. See Michigan Laws 8.3l
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Positive response: means the procedure administered by the notification system to allow excavators to determine whether all facility owners or facility operators contacted under a ticket have responded in accordance with this act. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prosecuting attorney: means the prosecuting attorney for a county, an assistant prosecuting attorney for a county, the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, an assistant attorney general, a special prosecuting attorney, or, in connection with the prosecution of an ordinance violation, an attorney for the political subdivision or governmental entity that enacted the ordinance, charter, rule, or regulation upon which the ordinance violation is based. See Michigan Laws 761.1
• Public right-of-way: means the area on, below, or above a public roadway, highway, street, alley, easement, or waterway. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Railroad: means that term as defined in section 109 of the railroad code of 1993, 1993 PA 354, MCL 462. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Safe zone: means an area 48 inches or more from either side of the facility marks provided by a facility owner or facility operator. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Sentencing guidelines: A set of rules and principles established by the United States Sentencing Commission that trial judges use to determine the sentence for a convicted defendant. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Soft excavation: means a method and technique designed to prevent contact damage to underground facilities, including, but not limited to, hand-digging, cautious digging with nonmechanical tools, vacuum excavation methods, or use of pneumatic hand tools. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Start date: means the date that a proposed excavation or blasting is expected to begin as indicated on a ticket. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Technical probation violation: means a violation of the terms of a probationer's probation order that is not a violation of a law of this state, a political subdivision of this state, another state, or the United States or of tribal law. See Michigan Laws 761.1
• Ticket: means a communication from the notification system to a facility owner or facility operator requesting the marking of underground facilities, based on information provided by an excavator in a dig notice. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• underground facility: means an underground or submerged conductor, pipe, or structure, including, but not limited to, a conduit, duct, line, pipe, wire, or other device and its appurtenances used to produce, store, transmit, or distribute a utility service, including communications, data, cable television, electricity, heat, natural or manufactured gas, oil, petroleum products, steam, sewage, video, water, and other similar substances, including environmental contaminates or hazardous waste. See Michigan Laws 460.723
• United States: shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
• White lining: means marking by an excavator of the area of a proposed excavation or blasting, with white paint or flags, or both, before giving notice to the notification system. See Michigan Laws 460.723