Terms Used In New York Laws > Public Health > Article 41 - Vital Statistics

• Account: means any account with a bank and includes a

  checking, time, interest or savings account;

  (b) "Afternoon" means the period of a day between noon and

  midnight;

  (c) "Banking day" means that part of any day on which a bank is

  open to the public for carrying on substantially all of its

  banking functions;

  (d) "Clearing house" means any association of banks or other

  payors regularly clearing items;

  (e) "Customer" means any person having an account with a bank or

  for whom a bank has agreed to collect items and includes a

  bank carrying an account with another bank;

  (f) "Documentary draft" means any negotiable or non-negotiable

  draft with accompanying documents, securities or other papers

  to be delivered against honor of the draft;

  (g) "Item" means any instrument for the payment of money even

  though it is not negotiable but does not include money;

  (h) "Midnight deadline" with respect to a bank is midnight on its

  next banking day following the banking day on which it

  receives the relevant item or notice or from which the time

  for taking action commences to run, whichever is later;

  (i) "Obligated bank" means the acceptor of a certified check, the

  issuer of a cashier's check, or the drawer of a teller's

  check;

  (j) "Properly payable" includes the availability of funds for

  payment at the time of decision to pay or dishonor;

  (k) "Remitter" means the buyer from the obligated bank of a

  cashier's check or a teller's check, and the drawer of a

  certified check;

  (l) "Settle" means to pay in cash, by clearing house settlement,

  in a charge or credit or by remittance, or otherwise as

  instructed. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 4-104

• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Agent: means any person, other than an attorney engaged in the practice of law, who represents or is authorized to represent a labor organization or employer organization, alone or with others in its dealings with employers, employees, members, employer organizations, labor organizations, or other persons, regardless of whether his relationship to the labor organization or employer organization is that of an independent contractor or employee. See N.Y. Labor Law 721
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Bridge: means a structure including supports erected over a depression or an obstruction such as water, highway, or railway, having a track or passageway for carrying traffic or other moving loads and having an opening measured along the center of the track or roadway of more than twenty feet between under croppings of abutments or spring lines or arches, or extreme ends of openings for multiple boxes and may include multiple pipes where the clear distance between openings is less than half of the smaller contiguous opening. See N.Y. Highway Law 230
• call center: means a facility or other operation whereby employees receive phone calls or other electronic communication for the purpose of providing customer assistance. See N.Y. Labor Law 770
• call center employer: means any business entity that employs fifty or more employees, excluding part-time employees; or fifty or more employees that in the aggregate work at least fifteen hundred hours per week, excluding overtime hours, for the purpose of staffing a call center. See N.Y. Labor Law 770
• child born out of wedlock: when used in this article, refers to a child whose father is not its mother's husband. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4135
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• 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.
• Depositary bank: means the first bank to which an item is transferred for collection even though it is also the payor bank;

  (b) "Payor bank" means a bank by which an item is payable as drawn or accepted;

  (c) "Intermediary bank" means any bank to which an item is transferred in course of collection except the depositary or payor bank;

  (d) "Collecting bank" means any bank handling the item for collection except the payor bank;

  (e) "Presenting bank" means any bank presenting an item except a payor bank;

  (f) "Remitting bank" means any payor or intermediary bank remitting for an item. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 4-105

• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Employee: means an individual employed by an employer. See N.Y. Labor Law 733
• Employer: means any person conducting a business or employing another within the state of New York, but shall not include a state government or any political or civil subdivision or other agency thereof. See N.Y. Labor Law 721
• Employer: means any individual, person, corporation, department, board, bureau, agency, commission, division, office, council or committee of the state government, public benefit corporation, public authority or political subdivision of the state, or other business entity, which employs or seeks to employ an individual or individuals. See N.Y. Labor Law 733
• Employer organization: means any organization of any kind which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of representing employers in dealing with employees or labor organizations concerning terms and conditions of employment, grievances, labor disputes, or other matters incidental to the employment relationship at a place of business maintained in the state of New York. See N.Y. Labor Law 721
• 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
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Instrument: means a negotiable instrument. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 3-102
• Issue: means the first delivery of an instrument to a holder

  or a remitter. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 3-102

• 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.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Labor organization: means any organization of any kind which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of representing employees employed within the state of New York in dealing with employers or employer organizations or with a state government, or any political or civil subdivision or other agency thereof, concerning terms and conditions of employment, grievances, labor disputes, or other matters incidental to the employment relationship, and shall include the parent national or international organization of a local labor organization. See N.Y. Labor Law 721
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Misdemeanor: Usually a petty offense, a less serious crime than a felony, punishable by less than a year of confinement.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• 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.
• Officer: means any person holding or in fact performing or authorized to perform the functions of an office named or described in the constitution, charter, articles of incorporation, articles of association or by-laws of a labor organization or employer organization. See N.Y. Labor Law 721
• order: is a direction to pay and must be more than an

  authorization or request. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 3-102

• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• owner: shall be deemed to include, in addition to those mentioned hereinabove, all the officers, directors and persons having an interest in more than ten per cent of the issued and outstanding stock of the owner as herein defined, as holder or beneficial owner thereof, if such owner be a corporation other than a banking organization as defined in section two of the banking law, a national banking association, a federal savings and loan association, the mortgage facilities corporation, savings banks life insurance fund, the savings banks retirement system, an authorized insurer as defined in § 107 of the insurance law, or a trust company or other corporation organized under the laws of this state all the capital stock of which is owned by at least twenty savings banks or by at least twenty savings and loan associations or a subsidiary corporation all of the capital stock of which is owned by such trust company or other corporation. See N.Y. New York City Administrative Code 27-2004
• 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: shall be deemed to include, in addition to those mentioned hereinabove, all the officers, directors and persons having an interest in more than ten percent of the issued and outstanding stock of the owner as herein defined, as holder or beneficial owner thereof, if such person be a corporation other than a banking organization as defined in section two of the banking law, a national banking association, a federal savings and loan association, the mortgage facilities corporation, savings banks life insurance fund, the savings banks retirement system, an authorized insurer as defined in § 107 of the insurance law, or a trust company or other corporation organized under the laws of this state all the capital stock of which is owned by at least twenty savings banks or by at least twenty savings and loan associations or a subsidiary corporation all of the capital stock of which is owned by such trust company or other corporation. See N.Y. New York City Administrative Code 27-2004
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Petit jury: A group of citizens who hear the evidence presented by both sides at trial and determine the facts in dispute. Federal criminal juries consist of 12 persons. Federal civil juries consist of six persons.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Probate: Proving a will
• promise: is a n undertaking to pay and must be more than an

  acknowledgment of an obligation. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 3-102

• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Prospective employee: means an individual seeking or being sought for employment with an employer. See N.Y. Labor Law 733
• Psychological stress evaluator: means any mechanical device or instrument which purports to determine the truth or falsity of statements made by an employee or prospective employee on the basis of vocal fluctuations or vocal stress. See N.Y. Labor Law 733
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Railroad: means a private or public railroad operating in the state of New York carrying either freight, passengers or freight and passengers including, but not limited to, those operated by the metropolitan transportation authority and its subsidiaries, the Long Island Rail Road, the metro-north railroad, the Staten Island rapid transit operating authority, the New York city transit authority or any other public authority or local government and shall include tourist excursion operations and railrides on standard gauge tracks. See N.Y. Highway Law 230
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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.
• Secondary party: means a drawer or endorser. See N.Y. Uniform Commercial Code 3-102
• 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.
• 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.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• tax credit: means any of the following tax credits allowed under the tax law: recovery tax credit, tax-free New York area tax elimination credit, minimum wage reimbursement credit, empire state jobs retention program credit, economic transformation and facility redevelopment program tax credit, excelsior jobs program credit, employee training incentive program tax credit, empire state apprenticeship program tax credit, and employment incentive tax credit. See N.Y. Labor Law 770
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• 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.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.