Terms Used In New Jersey Statutes 12:7C-8

  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • person: includes corporations, companies, associations, societies, firms, partnerships and joint stock companies as well as individuals, unless restricted by the context to an individual as distinguished from a corporate entity or specifically restricted to one or some of the above enumerated synonyms and, when used to designate the owner of property which may be the subject of an offense, includes this State, the United States, any other State of the United States as defined infra and any foreign country or government lawfully owning or possessing property within this State. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
  • Ship: includes vessels, steamers, canal boats and every boat or structure adapted to navigation or movement from place to place, upon the ocean, lakes, rivers or artificial waterways, either by its own power or otherwise. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
  • State: extends to and includes any State, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia and the Canal Zone. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
2. The following terms whenever used or referred to in this act shall have the following meanings unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:

a. “Vessel” means a boat, ship, or any other watercraft, regardless of whether it is, or was, used for recreational, commercial, or industrial purposes, or any other purpose, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water, except a boat or watercraft which is subject to the provisions of P.L.1969, c.264 (C. 12:7C-1 et seq.), and includes any trailer used to transport or store it.

b. “Owner” means a person or any other legal entity, other than a lienholder, having a property interest in or title to a vessel. The term includes a person entitled to the use or possession of a vessel subject to an interest of another person, reserved or created by agreement and securing payment or performance of an obligation, but the term excludes a lessee under a lease not intended as security.

c. “Lienholder” means any person or any other legal entity holding a security interest in or to a vessel.

d. “Security interest” means an interest which is reserved or created by an agreement which secures payment or performance of an obligation and is valid against third parties generally.

e. “Commission” means the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.

f. “Waters of this State” means all waters within the jurisdiction of this State, both tidal and nontidal, and the marginal sea adjacent to this State to a distance of three nautical miles from the shoreline.

g. “Removal costs” means any or all costs associated with the removal, raising, towing, transporting, cleaning, storage, or destruction of any vessel from land or water and shall include the reimbursement of any or all costs incurred by the applicant in the course of acquiring title to an abandoned vessel, including acquiring title to any trailer abandoned with the vessel.

h. “Municipal waterway” means any portion of a body of water located within a municipality or any portion of a body of water over which a municipality or harbor commission legally exercises jurisdiction.

L.1975, c.369, s.2; amended 1995, c.401, s.46; 2008, c.52, s.5.