Oregon Statutes 111.005 – Definitions for probate law
As used in ORS chapters 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116 and 117, unless the context requires otherwise:
Terms Used In Oregon Statutes 111.005
- Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Devise: To gift property by will.
- 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
- Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- 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.
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Person: includes individuals, corporations, associations, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies and joint stock companies. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
- Personal property: All property that is not real property.
- Probate: Proving a will
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Testate: To die leaving a will.
- Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
- 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.
(1) ‘Abate’ means to reduce a devise on account of the insufficiency of the estate to pay all claims, expenses and devises in full.
(2) ‘Action’ includes suits and legal proceedings.
(3) ‘Administration’ means any proceeding relating to the estate of a decedent, whether the decedent died testate, intestate or partially intestate.
(4) ‘Advancement’ means a gift by a decedent to an heir or devisee with the intent that the gift satisfy in whole or in part the heir’s share of an intestate estate or the devisee’s share of a testate estate.
(5) ‘Assets’ includes real, personal and intangible property.
(6) ‘Claim’ includes liabilities of a decedent, whether arising in contract, in tort or otherwise.
(7) ‘Court’ or ‘probate court’ means the court in which jurisdiction of probate matters, causes and proceedings is vested as provided in ORS § 111.075.
(8) ‘Decedent’ means a person who has died.
(9)(a) ‘Descendant’ means a person who is descended from a specific ancestor and includes an adopted child and the adopted child’s descendants.
(b) When used to refer to persons who take by intestate succession, ‘descendant’ does not include a person who is the descendant of a living descendant.
(10) ‘Devise,’ when used as a noun, means property disposed of by a will.
(11) ‘Devise,’ when used as a verb, means to dispose of property by a will.
(12) ‘Devisee’ means a person designated in a will to receive a devise.
(13) ‘Distributee’ means a person entitled to any property of a decedent under the will of the decedent or under intestate succession.
(14) ‘Domicile’ means the place of abode of a person, where the person intends to remain and to which, if absent, the person intends to return.
(15)(a) ‘Estate’ means the real and personal property of a decedent, as from time to time changed in form by sale, reinvestment, substitutions or otherwise, augmented by any accretions or additions or diminished by any decreases or distributions.
(b) ‘Estate’ includes tangible and intangible personal property of a decedent domiciled in Oregon, wherever the property is situated.
(16) ‘Funeral’ includes the burial or other disposition of the remains of a decedent, any plot or tomb and other necessary incidents to the disposition of the remains, any memorial ceremony or other observance and related expenses.
(17) ‘General devise’ means a devise chargeable generally on the estate of a testator so that the devise is not distinguishable from other parts of the estate and does not constitute a specific devise.
(18) ‘Heir’ means any person who is or would be entitled under intestate succession to property of a person upon that person’s death.
(19)(a) ‘Interested person’ means any person having a property right in or claim against the estate of a decedent that may be affected by the proceeding.
(b) ‘Interested person’ includes a decedent’s heir, devisee, child, spouse or creditor if the heir, devisee, child, spouse or creditor has a property right in or claim against the decedent’s estate.
(c) ‘Interested person’ also includes a fiduciary representing a person described in paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection.
(20) ‘Intestate’ means one who dies without leaving a valid will, or the circumstance of dying without leaving a valid will, effectively disposing of all the estate.
(21) ‘Intestate succession’ means succession to property of a decedent who dies intestate or partially intestate.
(22) ‘Issue’ means a descendant or descendants.
(23) ‘Net estate’ means the real and personal property of a decedent, except property used for the support of the surviving spouse and children and for the payment of expenses of administration, funeral expenses, claims and taxes.
(24) ‘Net intestate estate’ means any part of the net estate of a decedent not effectively disposed of by the will.
(25) ‘Personal property’ includes all property other than real property.
(26) ‘Personal representative’ includes executor, administrator, administrator with will annexed and administrator de bonis non, but does not include special administrator.
(27) ‘Property’ includes both real and personal property.
(28) ‘Real property’ includes all legal and equitable interests in land, in fee and for life.
(29) ‘Settlement’ includes, as to the estate of a decedent, the full process of administration, distribution and closing.
(30) ‘Specific devise’ means a devise of a specific thing or specified part of the estate of a testator that is so described as to be capable of identification. A specific devise is a gift of a part of the estate identified and differentiated from all other parts.
(31) ‘Will’ includes codicil and also includes a testamentary instrument that merely appoints a personal representative or that merely revokes or revives another will. [1969 c.591 § 1; 2015 c.387 § 31; 2016 c.42 § 1; 2017 c.169 § 1; 2021 c.282 § 4]
[Repealed by 1969 c.591 § 305]