Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 61 > Chapter 3 > Part 2 - Certificates of Title

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affidavit: means a sworn written declaration made before an officer authorized to administer oaths or an unsworn written declaration made under penalty of perjury as provided in 1-6-105. See Montana Code 1-1-203
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Authorized agent: means a person who has executed a written agreement with the department and is specifically authorized by the department to electronically access and update the department's motor vehicle titling, registration, or driver records, using an approved automated interface, for specific functions or purposes on behalf of a third party. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• 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.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bequeath: To gift property by will.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Bus: means a motor vehicle designed for carrying more than 10 passengers and used for the transportation of persons and any other motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Cab: means the passenger compartment of a truck or pickup truck. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Camper: means a structure designed to be mounted in the cargo area of a truck or attached to an incomplete vehicle for the purpose of providing shelter for persons. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Center structure: includes the section of either a unibody or frame-type passenger motor vehicle that consists of a unit of sheet metal that extends from the firewall to the back of the rear seat or the centerline of the rear wheels. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Certificate of title: means the paper record issued by the department or by the appropriate agency of another jurisdiction that establishes a verifiable record of ownership between an identified person or persons and the motor vehicle specifically described in the record and that provides notice of a perfected security interest in the motor vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Custom vehicle: means a motor vehicle other than a motorcycle that:

  (a)(i) was manufactured with a model year after 1948 and that is at least 25 years old; or

  (ii)was built to resemble a vehicle manufactured after 1948 and at least 25 years before the current calendar year, including a kit vehicle intended to resemble a vehicle manufactured after 1948 and that is at least 25 years old; and

  (b)has been altered from the manufacturer's original design or has a body constructed from nonoriginal materials. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Custom-built motorcycle: means a motorcycle that is equipped with:

  (a)an engine that was manufactured 20 years prior to the current calendar year and that has been altered from the manufacturer's original design; or

  (b)an engine that was manufactured to resemble an engine 20 or more years old and that has been constructed in whole or in part from nonoriginal materials. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Customer identification number: means :

  (a)a driver's license or identification card number when the customer is an individual who has been issued a driver's license or identification card by a state driver licensing authority;

  (b)a federal employer or tax identification number when the customer is a business entity that has been issued a federal employer or tax identification number;

  (c)the identification number assigned by the secretary of state to a business entity authorized to do business in this state under Title 35 if the customer is a business entity that does not have a federal employer or tax identification number other than a social security number; or

  (d)if the customer has not been issued one of the numbers described in subsections (14)(a) through (14)(c), a number assigned to the customer by the department when a transaction is initiated under this title. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: means a person that, for commission or profit, engages in whole or in part in the business of buying, selling, exchanging, or accepting on consignment new or used motor vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, pole trailers, travel trailers, motorboats, sailboats, snowmobiles, off-highway vehicles, or special mobile equipment that is not registered in the name of the person. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Declared weight: means the total unladen weight of a vehicle plus the weight of the maximum load to be carried on the vehicle as stated by the registrant in the application for registration. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Department: means the department of justice acting directly or through its duly authorized officers or agents. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Dolly or converter gear: means a device consisting of one or two axles with a fifth wheel and trailer tongue used to support the forward end of a semitrailer, converting a semitrailer into a trailer. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Driver: means a person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Frame: means the structure that supports the automobile body and other external component parts. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Front-end assembly: includes the hood, right front and left front fenders, grill, bumper, and radiator supports if two or more of these parts are assembled together as one unit forward of the firewall. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Golf cart: means a motor vehicle that is designed for use on a golf course to carry a person or persons and golf equipment and that has an average speed of less than 15 miles per hour. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Gross vehicle weight: means the weight of a vehicle without load plus the weight of any load on the vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• housetrailer: has the meaning provided in 15-24-201. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Implement of husbandry: means a vehicle that is designed for agricultural purposes and exclusively used by the owner of the vehicle in the conduct of the owner's agricultural operations. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• 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.
• Kit vehicle: is a motor vehicle assembled from a manufactured kit either as:

  (a)a complete kit, consisting of a prefabricated body and chassis, to construct a new motor vehicle; or

  (b)a kit with a prefabricated body to be mounted to an existing motor vehicle chassis and drivetrain, commonly referred to as a donor vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• 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.
• Light vehicle: means a motor vehicle commonly referred to as an automobile, van, sport utility vehicle, or truck having a manufacturer's rated capacity of 1 ton or less. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Manufacturer: includes any person engaged in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, pole trailers, travel trailers, motorboats, sailboats, snowmobiles, or off-highway vehicles as a regular business. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Motor vehicle: means :

  (i)a vehicle propelled by its own power and designed or used to transport persons or property on the highways of the state;

  (ii)a quadricycle if it is equipped for use on the highways as prescribed in chapter 9; or

  (iii)a golf cart only if it is equipped for use on the highways as prescribed in chapter 9 and is operated pursuant to 61-8-391 or by a person with a low-speed restricted driver's license. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Motorboat: means a vessel, including a personal watercraft or pontoon, propelled by any machinery, motor, or engine of any description, whether or not the machinery, motor, or engine is the principal source of propulsion. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Motorcycle: means a motor vehicle that has a seat or saddle for the use of the operator and that is designated to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• New motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle, regardless of the mileage of the vehicle, the legal or equitable title to which has never been transferred by a manufacturer, distributor, or dealer to another person as the result of a retail sale. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Nonresident: means a person who is not a Montana resident. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Off-highway vehicle: means a self-propelled vehicle designed for recreation or cross-country travel on public lands, trails, easements, lakes, rivers, or streams. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Operator: means a person who is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Owner: means each person who holds the legal title to a vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Peace officer: has the meaning as defined in 46-1-202. See Montana Code 1-1-207
• person: means an individual, corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, state agency, local government unit, another state government, the United States, a political subdivision of this or another state, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Personal watercraft: means a vessel that uses an outboard motor or an inboard engine powering a water jet pump as its primary source of propulsion and that is designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on the vessel rather than by the conventional method of sitting or standing in the vessel. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Pole trailer: means a vehicle without power designed to be drawn by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads such as poles, pipes, or structural members capable generally of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Quadricycle: means a four-wheeled motor vehicle, designed for on-road or off-road use, having a seat or saddle on which the operator sits. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• 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
• register: means the act or process of creating an electronic record, maintained by the department, of the assignment of a license plate or a set of license plates to and the issuance of a registration decal for a specific vehicle, the ownership of which has been established or is presumed in department records. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Registration receipt: means a paper record that is produced and issued or, if authorized by the department, an electronic record that is transmitted by the department, its authorized agent, or a county treasurer to the owner of a vehicle that identifies a vehicle, based on information maintained in the electronic record of title for the vehicle, and that provides evidence of the payment of all fees required to be paid for the registration of the vehicle for the registration period indicated in the receipt. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• 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.
• Retail sale: means the sale of a motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer, travel trailer, motorboat, snowmobile, off-highway vehicle, or special mobile equipment by a dealer to a person for purposes other than resale. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Sailboat: means a vessel that uses a sail and wind as its primary source of propulsion. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Salvage certificate: means a certificate of title issued by the department for a salvage vehicle that may be used to retitle the motor vehicle. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Salvage vehicle: means a motor vehicle damaged by collision, fire, flood, accident, trespass, or other occurrence to the extent that the owner, an insurer, or another person acting on behalf of the owner determines that the cost of parts and labor makes it uneconomical to repair the vehicle. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Salvage vehicle purchaser: means a person, other than an insurer, who purchases or otherwise obtains possession of a salvage vehicle. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Sell: means to transfer ownership from one person to another person or from a dealer to another person for consideration. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Semitrailer: means a vehicle, with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that some part of its weight and that of its load rests on or is carried by another vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Snowmobile: means a self-propelled vehicle of an overall width of 48 inches or less, excluding accessories, that is designed primarily for travel on snow or ice, that may be steered by skis or runners, and that is not otherwise registered or licensed under the laws of the state of Montana. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Specially constructed vehicle: means a motor vehicle, including a motorcycle, that:

  (i)was not originally constructed under a distinctive make, model, or type by a generally recognized manufacturer of motor vehicles;

  (ii)has been structurally modified so that it does not have the same appearance as similar vehicles from a generally recognized manufacturer of motor vehicles;

  (iii)has been constructed or assembled entirely from custom-built parts and materials not obtained from other vehicles;

  (iv)has been constructed or assembled by using major component parts from one or more manufactured vehicles and that cannot be identified as a specific make or model; or

  (v)has been constructed by the use of a kit that cannot be visually identified as a specific make or model. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• 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
• Street: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every publicly maintained way when any part of the publicly maintained way is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Street rod: means a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle, that:

  (a)was manufactured prior to 1949 or was built to resemble a vehicle manufactured before 1949, including a kit vehicle intended to resemble a vehicle manufactured before 1949; and

  (b)has been altered from the manufacturer's original design or has a body constructed from nonoriginal materials. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Tail section: includes the floor pan, right rear and left rear quarter panels, deck lid, upper rear and lower rear panels, and rear bumper if two or more of these parts are assembled together as one unit. See Montana Code 61-3-210
• Temporary registration permit: means a paper record:

  (a)issued by the department, an authorized agent, a county treasurer, or a person, using a department-approved electronic interface after an electronic record has been transmitted to the department, that contains:

  (i)required vehicle and owner information; and

  (ii)the purpose for which the record was generated; and

  (b)that, when placed in a durable license-plate style plastic pouch approved by the department and displayed as prescribed in 61-3-224, authorizes a person to operate the described motor vehicle, motorboat, sailboat that is 12 feet in length or longer, snowmobile, or off-highway vehicle for:

  (i)40 days from the date the record is issued or until the vehicle is registered under Title 23 or this title, whichever first occurs; or

  (ii)90 days from the date the record is issued for a permit issued pursuant to 61-3-303(4)(b). See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Trailer: means a vehicle, with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that no part of its weight rests on the towing vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Transaction summary receipt: means an electronic record produced and issued by the department, its authorized agent, or a county treasurer for which a paper receipt is issued. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Travel trailer: means a vehicle:

  (a)that is 46 feet or less in length;

  (b)that is of a size or weight that does not require special permits when towed by a motor vehicle; and

  (c)that is designed to provide temporary facilities for recreational, travel, or camping use and not used as a principal residence. See Montana Code 61-1-101

• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Used motor vehicle: includes any motor vehicle that has been sold, bargained, exchanged, or given away or had its title transferred from the person who first took title to it from the manufacturer, importer, dealer, wholesaler, or agent of the manufacturer or importer and that has been used so as to have become what is commonly known as "secondhand" within the ordinary meaning of that term. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Vehicle: means a device in, on, or by which any person or property may be transported or drawn on a public highway, except devices moved by animal power or used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Vehicle identification number: means the number, letters, or combination of numbers and letters assigned by the manufacturer, by the department, or in accordance with the laws of another state or country for the purpose of identifying the motor vehicle or a component part of the motor vehicle. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Vessel: means every description of watercraft, unless otherwise defined by the department, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Wholesaler: means a person that for a commission or with intent to make a profit or gain of money or other thing of value sells, exchanges, or attempts to negotiate a sale or exchange of an interest in a used motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer, pole trailer, travel trailer, motorboat, snowmobile, off-highway vehicle, or special mobile equipment only to dealers and auto auctions licensed under chapter 4, part 1. See Montana Code 61-1-101
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203