Terms Used In Michigan Laws > Chapter 700 > Act 386 of 1998 > Article III > Part 8 - Creditors' Claims

• Agent: includes , but is not limited to, an attorney-in-fact under a durable or nondurable power of attorney and an individual authorized to make decisions as a patient advocate concerning another's health care. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
• 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.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• 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.
• Attorney: means , if appointed to represent a child under the provisions referenced in section 5213, an attorney serving as the child's legal advocate in the manner defined and described in section 13a of chapter XIIA of the probate code of 1939, 1939 PA 288, MCL 712A. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Bonds or other evidences of indebtedness: means any instrument providing for the payment of money, executed by or on behalf of a public corporation or which a public corporation has assumed and agreed to pay, including, without limitation on the foregoing bonds, notes, contracts, leases and certificates, but shall not include bonds or other evidences of indebtedness issued pursuant to Act No. See Michigan Laws 141.151
• Claim: includes , but is not limited to, in respect to a decedent's or protected individual's estate, a liability of the decedent or protected individual, whether arising in contract, tort, or otherwise, and a liability of the estate that arises at or after the decedent's death or after a conservator's appointment, including funeral and burial expenses and costs and expenses of administration. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Court: means the probate court or, when applicable, the family division of circuit court. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Distributee: means a person that receives a decedent's property from the decedent's personal representative or trust property from the trustee other than as a creditor or purchaser. See Michigan Laws 700.1103
• 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}
• Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to this act as the property is originally constituted and as it exists throughout administration. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
• 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.
• Exempt property: means property of a decedent's estate that is described in section 2404. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
• Family allowance: means the allowance prescribed in section 2403. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: includes , but is not limited to, a personal representative, funeral representative, guardian, conservator, trustee, plenary guardian, partial guardian, and successor fiduciary. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
• 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.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• 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.
• Homestead allowance: means the allowance prescribed in section 2402. See Michigan Laws 700.1104
• 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
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Issue: means an individual's descendant. See Michigan Laws 700.1105
• 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.
• Legislative body: means the board, council, commission, or other body having legislative or general governing power of a public corporation. See Michigan Laws 141.162
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Money: means legal tender or a note, draft, certificate of deposit, stock, bond, check, or credit card. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
• month: means a calendar month; the word "year" a calendar year; and the word "year" alone shall be equivalent to the words "year of our Lord". See Michigan Laws 8.3j
• 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.
• Order: means the legislative enactment of a county treasurer's powers under this act. See Michigan Laws 141.103
• Ordinance: means an ordinance, resolution, or other appropriate legislative enactment of the governing body of a public corporation. See Michigan Laws 141.103
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Person: means an individual or an organization. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
• person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals. See Michigan Laws 8.3l
• Personal representative: includes , but is not limited to, an executor, administrator, successor personal representative, and special personal representative, and any other person, other than a trustee of a trust subject to article VII, who performs substantially the same function under the law governing that person's status. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
• Petition: means a written request to the court for an order after notice. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
• Proceeding: includes an application and a petition, and may be an action at law or a suit in equity. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, and includes both real and personal property or an interest in real or personal property. See Michigan Laws 700.1106
• Public corporation: means any body corporate organized by or pursuant to the laws of this state to carry out a public governmental or propriety function, including, without limitation on the foregoing, the state or any school district, city, village, township, county, district, commission, authority, university, college, or any combination thereof, which is a corporate entity. See Michigan Laws 141.151
• Public corporation: means a county, city, village, township, charter township, port authority, metropolitan district, or authority of this state, or a combination of these entities when authorized by law to act jointly. See Michigan Laws 141.162
• Public improvements: means only the following improvements: housing facilities; garbage disposal plants; rubbish disposal plants; incinerators; transportation systems, including plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties used or useful in connection with those systems; sewage disposal systems, including sanitary sewers, combined sanitary and storm sewers, plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties used or useful in connection with the collection, treatment, or disposal of sewage or industrial wastes; storm water systems, including storm sewers, plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties used or useful in connection with the collection, treatment, or disposal of storm water; water supply systems, including plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties used or useful in connection with obtaining a water supply, the treatment of water, or the distribution of water; utility systems for supplying light, heat, or power, including plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties used or useful in connection with those systems; approved cable television systems, approved cable communication systems, or telephone systems, including plants, works, instrumentalities, and properties used or useful in connection with those systems; automobile parking facilities, including within or as part of the facilities areas or buildings that may be rented or leased to private enterprises serving the public; yacht basins; harbors; docks; wharves; terminal facilities; elevated highways; bridges over, tunnels under, and ferries across bodies of water; community buildings; public wholesale markets for farm and food products; stadiums; convention halls; auditoriums; dormitories; hospitals and other health care facilities; buildings devoted to public use; museums; parks; recreational facilities; reforestation projects; aeronautical facilities; and marine railways; or any right or interest in or equipment for these improvements. See Michigan Laws 141.103
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Security: includes , but is not limited to, a note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas, or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a title or lease, collateral trust certificate, transferable share, voting trust certificate, or interest in a regulated investment company or other entity generally referred to as a mutual fund or, in general, an interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or a certificate of interest or participation for, a temporary or interim certificate, receipt, or certificate of deposit for, or any warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase any of the items listed in this subdivision. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
• shall not apply: means that the pertinent provision is not operative as to certain persons or things or in conjunction with a particular date or dates. See Michigan Laws 8.4c
• Special personal representative: means a personal representative as described by section 3614 to 3618. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
• 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
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Tax obligation: means a bond, note, contract obligation, assessment, or other evidence of indebtedness payable primarily or secondarily from ad valorem taxes as a general or full faith and credit obligation of a public corporation. See Michigan Laws 141.162
• 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.
• Trust: includes , but is not limited to, an express trust, private or charitable, with additions to the trust, wherever and however created. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustee: includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by the court. See Michigan Laws 700.1107
• United States: shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
• Unlimited tax pledge: means an undertaking by a public corporation to secure and pay a tax obligation from ad valorem taxes to be levied on all taxable property within the boundaries of the public corporation without limitation as to rate or amount and in addition to other taxes which the public corporation may be authorized to levy. See Michigan Laws 141.162