Terms Used In Michigan Laws > Chapter 570 > R.S. of 1846 > Chapter 126 - Of the Lien of Mechanics and Others

• 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.
• Audited financial statement: means a fiscal year end financial statement prepared by a certified public accountant according to generally accepted accounting principles. See Michigan Laws 288.570
• 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.
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Michigan department of agriculture. See Michigan Laws 288.572
• Department: means the department of talent and economic development. See Michigan Laws 408.153
• Director: means the director of the Michigan department of agriculture or his or her designee. See Michigan Laws 288.572
• 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.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Milk: means the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of 1 or more healthy cows, goats, sheep, or other dairy animals. See Michigan Laws 288.574
• milk plant: means any place, premises, or establishment where milk or dairy products are collected, handled, processed, stored, pasteurized, aseptically processed, packaged, or prepared for distribution. See Michigan Laws 288.572
• 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.
• Other security: means a mutually acceptable producer security agreement, acceptable to the director, approved and signed by the milk buyer and all milk sellers selling milk to that milk buyer. See Michigan Laws 288.576
• 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, partnership, company, limited liability company, cooperative, association, firm, trustee, educational institution, state or local government unit, or corporation. See Michigan Laws 288.576
• person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals. See Michigan Laws 8.3l
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Producer: means a person who owns or operates a dairy farm and sells or distributes milk produced on that farm including a person who markets milk on behalf of a producer pursuant to a marketing agreement. See Michigan Laws 288.576
• Registered name: means either a name that is registered as "doing business as" at the county clerk's office in the county in which the producer or processor resides or that is registered with the state of Michigan as a legal entity registered to do business within the state under an assumed name. See Michigan Laws 288.576
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Verified financial statement: means a financial statement that contains a notarized statement, signed and sworn to by an authorized representative of the dairy plant, attesting that the financial statement is correct. See Michigan Laws 288.577