Terms Used In New York Laws > Criminal Procedure > Part 1 > Title D - Rules of Evidence, Standards of Proof and Related Matters

• Academic year: shall mean the regular school year beginning July first and ending June thirtieth. See N.Y. Education Law 651
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• art merchant: includes an auctioneer who sells such works at public auction, and except in the case of multiples, includes persons, not otherwise defined or treated as art merchants herein, who are consignors or principals of auctioneers. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Artist: means the creator of a work of fine art or, in the case of multiples, the person who conceived or created the image which is contained in or which constitutes the master from which the individual print was made. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• 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.
• authorship: refers to the creator of a work of fine art or multiple or to the period, culture, source or origin, as the case may be, with which the creation of such work is identified in the description of the work. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• 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}
• Board: shall mean the board of trustees of the New York state higher education services corporation. See N.Y. Education Law 651
• Certificate of authenticity: means a written statement by an art merchant confirming, approving or attesting to the authorship of a work of fine art or multiple, which is capable of being used to the advantage or disadvantage of some person. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Charitable or nonprofit organization: means any organization which is exempt from federal or state income taxation, except that the term does not include organizations which sell or offer to sell such donated items of food. See N.Y. Agriculture and Markets Law 71-Y
• Child witness: means a person fourteen years old or less who is or will be called to testify in a criminal proceeding, other than a grand jury proceeding, concerning an offense defined in Article one hundred thirty of the penal law or section 255. See N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law 65.00
• commissioner: means the commissioner of agriculture and markets of the state of New York. See N.Y. Agriculture and Markets Law 71-U
• Conservation: means acts taken to correct deterioration and alteration and acts taken to prevent, stop or retard deterioration. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: shall mean the New York state higher education services corporation. See N.Y. Education Law 651
• 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.
• Counterfeit: means a work of fine art or multiple made, altered or copied, with or without intent to deceive, in such manner that it appears or is claimed to have an authorship which it does not in fact possess. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Craft: means a functional or non-functional work individually designed, and crafted by hand, in any medium including but not limited to textile, tile, paper, clay, glass, fiber, wood, metal or plastic; provided, however, that if produced in multiples, craft shall not include works mass produced or produced in other than a limited edition. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Creditors: means "creditor" as defined in paragraph thirteen of subsection (b) of section 1--201 of the uniform commercial code. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• dairy product: means all milk and milk products defined by the definitions and standards of identity promulgated pursuant to section forty-six-a of this chapter and such other food products derived from milk as the commissioner shall designate by regulation. See N.Y. Agriculture and Markets Law 71-U
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• 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
• Executrix: The female counterpart of an executor. See also
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Farm products: means any agricultural, dairy or horticultural product or any product designed or intended for human consumption or prepared principally from an agricultural, dairy or horticultural product. See N.Y. Agriculture and Markets Law 71-Y
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fine art: means a painting, sculpture, drawing, or work of graphic art, and print, but not multiples. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Game or wild game: means any deer or big game, or portions thereof, as defined in section 11-0103 of the environmental conservation law, taken by lawful hunting. See N.Y. Agriculture and Markets Law 71-Y
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• Hudson river valley: means the Hudson river and adjacent areas between the Adirondack Mountains and the tip of Manhattan Island in the city of New York. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 10.03
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institute: means the Institute for the Hudson River Collection created by this article. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 10.03
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Limited edition: means works of art produced from a master, all of which are the same image and bear numbers or other markings to denote the limited production thereof to a stated maximum number of multiples, or are otherwise held out as limited to a maximum number of multiples. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Master: when used alone is used in lieu of and means the same as such things as printing plate, stone, block, screen, photographic negative or other like material which contains an image used to produce visual art objects in multiples, or in the case of sculptures, a mold, model, cast, form or other prototype, other than from glass, which additional multiples of sculpture are produced, fabricated or carved. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• multiples: means prints, photographs, positive or negative, sculpture and similar art objects produced in more than one copy and sold, offered for sale or consigned in, into or from this state for an amount in excess of one hundred dollars exclusive of any frame or in the case of sculpture, an amount in excess of fifteen hundred dollars. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• On consignment: means that no title to, estate in, or right to possession of, the work of fine art or multiple that is superior to that of the consignor vests in the consignee, notwithstanding the consignee's power or authority to transfer or convey all the right, title and interest of the consignor, in and to such work, to a third person. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Operator: means the individual authorized by the court to operate the closed-circuit television equipment used in accordance with the provisions of this article. See N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law 65.00
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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, corporation, association or other group, however organized. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• President: shall mean the president of the corporation. See N.Y. Education Law 651
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Proofs: means multiples which are the same as, and which are produced from the same masters as, the multiples in a limited edition, but which, whether so designated or not, are set aside from and are in addition to the limited edition to which they relate. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Reproduction: means a copy, in any medium, of a work of fine art, that is displayed or published under circumstances that, reasonably construed, evinces an intent that it be taken as a representation of a work of fine art as created by the artist. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Reproduction right: means a right to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, distribute copies of, publicly perform or publicly display a work of fine art. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Sculpture: means a three-dimensional fine art object produced, fabricated or carved in multiple from a mold, model, cast, form or other prototype, other than from glass, sold, offered for sale or consigned in, into or from this state for an amount in excess of fifteen hundred dollars. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Signed: means autographed by the artist's own hand, and not by mechanical means of reproduction, after the multiple was produced, whether or not the master was signed or unsigned. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• State agency: means any state board, body, bureau, commission, council, department, public authority, public corporation, division, office or other governmental entity performing a governmental or proprietary function for the state. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 10.03
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Successor in interest: shall mean a "personal representative" "testamentary beneficiary" trustee or beneficiary of a "lifetime trust" or an "heir" (including heirs who acquire the work of fine art, craft or print from the artist or craftsperson or from another heir or beneficiary of the artist or craftsperson), which terms shall have the same meanings as set forth in the estates, powers and trusts law. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimonial room: means any room, separate and apart from the courtroom, which is furnished comfortably and less formally than a courtroom and from which the testimony of a vulnerable child witness can be transmitted to the courtroom by means of live, two-way closed-circuit television. See N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law 65.00
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Vulnerable child witness: means a child witness whom a court has declared to be vulnerable. See N.Y. Criminal Procedure Law 65.00
• Written instrument: means a written or printed agreement, bill of sale, invoice, certificate of authenticity, catalogue or any other written or printed note or memorandum or label describing the work of fine art or multiple which is to be sold, exchanged or consigned by an art merchant. See N.Y. Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 11.01