Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 28 > Chapter 2 > Part 21 - Payment of Construction Contractors and Subcontractors

• 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.
• Construction contract: means a written agreement between an owner and a contractor for the contractor to construct or improve or to provide construction management for the construction or improvement of an improvement to real property. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contractor: means a person who has signed a construction contract with an owner. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• 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.
• 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.
• Improve: means to build, alter, demolish, repair, construct, expand, cover, excavate, grade, fill, clear, plant, landscape, or furnish material or labor, or both for an improvement. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• Improvement: means all or a part of a residential or commercial building, structure, area of real property, quantity of earth or fill material, tree or shrubbery, driveway, roadway, or parking area. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• 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}
• 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.
• 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.
• Owner: means a governmental entity or private entity that has a legal interest in the real property improved or to be improved by the performance of the construction contract. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means lands, tenements, hereditaments, and possessory title to public lands. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• receive: means actual receipt. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• 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.
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Subcontract: means a contract between a contractor and a subcontractor or between a subcontractor and another subcontractor, the purpose of which is the performance of all or a part of the construction contract. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• Subcontractor: means a person who has contracted with a contractor or another subcontractor for the purposes of performance of all or a part of a subcontract. See Montana Code 28-2-2101
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.