Article 1 Words and Phrases Defined

Terms Used In New York Laws > Vehicle and Traffic > Title 1 - Words and Phrases Defined

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • 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.
  • authorizing agent: shall mean the person with the right to control the disposition of the decedent pursuant to section forty-two hundred one of the public health law. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
  • 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.
  • Bequeath: To gift property by will.
  • Bequest: Property gifted by will.
  • casket: means a rigid container that is designed for the encasement of human remains and customarily ornamented and lined with fabric. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • cemetery board: means the cemetery board in the division of cemeteries in the department of state. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • cemetery corporation: means any corporation formed under a general or special law for the disposal or burial of deceased human beings, by cremation, natural organic reduction or in a grave, mausoleum, vault, columbarium or other receptacle but does not include a family cemetery corporation or a private cemetery corporation. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Consolidated corporation: means the new corporation in which two or more constituent corporations are consolidated. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 901
  • Consolidation: means a procedure of the character described in subparagraph (a) (2). See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 901
  • Constituent corporation: means an existing corporation that is participating in the merger or consolidation with one or more other corporations. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 901
  • Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • 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.
  • Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
  • cremains: means ashes and other residue recovered after the completion of cremation, which may include residue of foreign matter that may have been cremated with the human remains. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • cremation: means the technical process, using heat and flame, that reduces human remains to ashes and other residue. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • crematory: means a facility or portion of a building in which the remains of deceased human beings are processed by cremation. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • 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.
  • Devise: To gift property by will.
  • 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.
  • Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • external wrappings: means a nonmetal receptacle or enclosure, without ornamentation or a fixed interior lining, which is designed for the encasement of human remains and which is made of cardboard, pressed wood, composite materials (with or without an outside covering), or pouches of canvas or other material. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • 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.
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: A government corporation that insures the deposits of all national and state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. Source: OCC
  • 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.
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
  • interment: means the permanent disposition of human remains by inurnment, entombment or ground burial. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
  • Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Merger: means a procedure of the character described in subparagraph (a) (1). See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 901
  • monuments: means a memorial erected in a cemetery on a lot, plot or part thereof, except private mausoleums. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. Source: OCC
  • natural organic reduction: means the contained, accelerated conversion of human remains to soil. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • natural organic reduction facility: means a structure, room, or other space in a building or real property where natural organic reduction of a human body occurs. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
  • nonsectarian burial society: means a corporation or unincorporated association or society having among its activities or its former activities the provision of burial benefits for its members and not supervised or controlled by a religious corporation. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • 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.
  • owner of a lot: means any person having a lawful title to the use of a niche, crypt, lot, plot or part thereof, in a cemetery, mausoleum or columbarium. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • 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.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • pet cremated remains: means ashes and/or other residue recovered after the completion of cremation of any domestic animal that has been adapted or tamed to live in intimate association with people where such cremation has occurred at a pet crematorium as defined in section seven hundred fifty-a of the general business law. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
  • 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.
  • religious burial society: means a corporation or unincorporated association or society having among its activities or its former activities the provision of burial benefits for its members and supervised or controlled by a religious corporation. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • 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.
  • Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  • 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.
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
  • Surviving corporation: means the constituent corporation into which one or more other constituent corporations are merged. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 901
  • temporary storage facility: means an area that (i) is designated for the retention of human remains prior to cremation or natural organic reduction; (ii) complies with all applicable public health laws, (iii) preserves the health and safety of the crematory or natural organic reduction facility personnel; and (iv) is secure from access by anyone other than authorized persons. See N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law 1502
  • Tenancy by the entirety: A type of joint tenancy between husband and wife that is recognized in some States. Neither party can sever the joint tenancy relationship; when a spouse dies, the survivor acquires full title to the property.
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • 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.