Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 5727 - Public Utilities

• 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.
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Combined company: means any person engaged in the activity of an electric company or rural electric company that is also engaged in the activity of a heating company or a natural gas company, or any combination thereof. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Energy conversion equipment: includes , but is not limited to, inverters, batteries, switch gears, wiring, collection lines, substations, ancillary tangible personal property, or any lines and associated tangible personal property located between substations and the transmission interconnection point. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Energy facility: includes buildings, structures, improvements, or fixtures exclusively used to house, support, or stabilize tangible personal property constituting the facility or that are otherwise necessary for the operation of that property; and so much of the land on which such tangible personal property is situated as is required for operation of the facility and is not devoted to some other use, not to exceed, in the case of wind turbines, one-half acre for each wind turbine, and regardless of whether the land is owned by the owner or lessee of the tangible personal property or by another person. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Energy resource: means any of the following:

  (1) "Renewable energy resource" as defined in section 4928. See Ohio Code 5727.01

• 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.
• 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.
• Gross receipts: means the entire receipts for business done by any person from operations as a public utility, or incidental thereto, or in connection therewith, including any receipts received under Chapter 4928 of the Revised Code. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• 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.
• Interexchange telecommunications company: means a person that is engaged in the business of transmitting telephonic messages to, from, through, or in this state, but that is not a telephone company. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Internet: means the international computer network of both federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data networks, including the graphical subnetwork known as the world wide web. See Ohio Code 1.59
• 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}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Nameplate capacity: means the original interconnected maximum rated alternating current output of a generator or other electric production equipment under specific conditions designated by the manufacturer, expressed in the number of kilowatts or megawatts. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• 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 an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• political subdivision: means a county, township, municipal corporation, or any other body corporate and politic that is responsible for government activities in a geographic area smaller than that of the state. See Ohio Code 5727.02
• Population: means that shown by the most recent regular federal census. See Ohio Code 1.59
• production equipment: includes taxable station equipment that is located at a production plant. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• property used in railroad operations: means property used in or determined by the tax commissioner to be held by a railroad for use in railroad operations. See Ohio Code 5727.12
• Public utility: means each person referred to as a telephone company, telegraph company, electric company, natural gas company, pipe-line company, water-works company, water transportation company, heating company, rural electric company, railroad company, combined company, or energy company. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Public utility property lessor: means any person, other than a public utility or an interexchange telecommunications company, that leases personal property, other than in a sale and leaseback transaction, to a public utility, other than a railroad, water transportation, telephone, or telegraph company if the property would be taxable property if owned by the public utility. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• 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.
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Rural electric company: means any nonprofit corporation, organization, association, or cooperative engaged in the business of supplying electricity to its members or persons owning an interest therein in an area the major portion of which is rural. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Sale and leaseback transaction: means a transaction in which a public utility or interexchange telecommunications company sells any tangible personal property to a person other than a public utility or interexchange telecommunications company and leases that property back from the buyer. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• 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.
• state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Supplying of electricity: means generating, transmitting, or distributing electricity. See Ohio Code 5727.02
• Tax year: means the year for which property or gross receipts are subject to assessment under this chapter. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• taxable property: includes patterns, jigs, dies, and drawings of an electric company or a combined company for use in the activity of an electric company. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Taxing district: means a municipal corporation or township, or part thereof, in which the aggregate rate of taxation is uniform. See Ohio Code 5727.01
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
• Whoever: includes all persons, natural and artificial; partners; principals, agents, and employees; and all officials, public or private. See Ohio Code 1.02