Choice of Law for Contracts
Choice of Law for Torts and Other Noncontractual Claims

Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 15 - Choice of Laws

  • Accession: means goods that are physically united with other goods in such a manner that the identity of the original goods is not lost. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Account debtor: means a person obligated on an account, chattel paper or general intangible. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
  • Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
  • Agency: means any state board, commission, department, or division thereof, or officer authorized by law to make rules or to issue orders, except those in the legislative and judicial branches. See Oregon Statutes 183.310
  • Agricultural lien: means an interest, other than a security interest or a lien created under ORS § 87. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • 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.
  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Any other state: includes any state and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Articles of incorporation: means the articles described in ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • Authorized shares: means the shares of all classes that a domestic or foreign corporation is authorized to issue. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Bailiff: a court officer who enforces the rules of behavior in courtrooms.
  • Bank: means an organization that is engaged in the business of banking. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • 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.
  • Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
  • 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
  • Cash proceeds: means proceeds that are money, checks, deposit accounts or the like. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Certificate of title: includes another record maintained as an alternative to the certificate of title by the governmental unit that issues certificates of title if a statute permits the security interest in question to be indicated on the record as a condition or result of the security interest's obtaining priority over the rights of the lien creditor with respect to the collateral. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Chattel paper: means a record or records that evidence both a monetary obligation and a security interest in specific goods, a security interest in specific goods and software used in the goods, a security interest in specific goods and license of software used in the goods, a lease of specific goods, or a lease of specific goods and license of software used in the goods. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
  • Collateral: means the property subject to a security interest or agricultural lien. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Commodity account: means an account maintained by a commodity intermediary in which a commodity contract is carried for a commodity customer. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Commodity contract: means a commodity futures contract, an option on a commodity futures contract, a commodity option or another contract if the contract or option is:

    (A) Traded on or subject to the rules of a board of trade that has been designated as a contract market for such a contract pursuant to federal commodities laws; or

    (B) Traded on a foreign commodity board of trade, exchange, or market, and is carried on the books of a commodity intermediary for a commodity customer. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Commodity intermediary: means a person that:

    (A) Is registered as a futures commission merchant under federal commodities law; or

    (B) In the ordinary course of its business provides clearance or settlement services for a board of trade that has been designated as a contract market pursuant to federal commodities law. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • 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.
  • Consignee: means a merchant to which goods are delivered in a consignment. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Consignment: means a transaction, regardless of its form, in which a person delivers goods to a merchant for the purpose of sale and:

    (A) The merchant:

    (i) Deals in goods of that kind under a name other than the name of the person making delivery;

    (ii) Is not an auctioneer; and

    (iii) Is not generally known by its creditors to be substantially engaged in selling the goods of others;

    (B) With respect to each delivery, the aggregate value of the goods is $1,000 or more at the time of delivery;

    (C) The goods are not consumer goods immediately before delivery; and

    (D) The transaction does not create a security interest that secures an obligation. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Consignor: means a person that delivers goods to a consignee in a consignment. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Consumer goods: means goods that are used or bought for use primarily for personal, family or household purposes. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Continuation statement: means an amendment of a financing statement which:

    (A) Identifies, by its file number, the initial financing statement to which it relates; and

    (B) Indicates that it is a continuation statement for, or that it is filed to continue the effectiveness of, the identified financing statement. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • County court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including by hand, mail, commercial delivery and, in accordance with ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Deposit account: means a demand, time, savings, passbook or similar account maintained with a bank. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Distribution: means a direct or indirect transfer of money or other property, except of a corporation's own shares, or a corporation's incurrence of indebtedness to or for the benefit of the corporation's shareholders in respect of any of the corporation's shares, in the form of a declaration or payment of a dividend, a purchase, redemption or other acquisition of shares, a distribution of indebtedness, or otherwise. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
  • Document: means a document of title or a receipt of the type described in ORS § 77. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Electronic transmission: means a form or process of communication that does not directly involve physically transferring paper or another tangible medium and that enables a recipient to retain, retrieve and reproduce information by means of an automated process that is used in conventional commercial practice, except as provided in ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Encumbrance: means a right, other than an ownership interest, in real property. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
  • Equipment: means goods other than inventory, farm products or consumer goods. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • 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.
  • executive department: means all statewide elected officers other than judges, and all boards, commissions, departments, divisions and other entities, without regard to the designation given to those entities, that are within the executive branch of government as described in Article III, section 1, of the Oregon Constitution, and that are not:

    (a) In the judicial department or the legislative department;

    (b) Local governments; or

    (c) Special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.112

  • 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 goods, other than standing timber, with respect to which the debtor is engaged in a farming operation and which are:

    (A) Crops grown, growing, or to be grown, including:

    (i) Crops produced on trees, vines and bushes; and

    (ii) Aquatic goods produced in aquacultural operations;

    (B) Livestock, born or unborn, including aquatic goods produced in aquacultural operations;

    (C) Supplies used or produced in a farming operation; or

    (D) Products of crops or livestock in their unmanufactured states. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • File number: means the number assigned to an initial financing statement pursuant to ORS § 79. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Filing office: means an office designated in ORS § 79. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Financing statement: means a record or records composed of an initial financing statement and any filed record relating to the initial financing statement. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • 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.
  • Fixture filing: means the filing of a financing statement covering goods that are or are to become fixtures and satisfying ORS § 79. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Fixtures: means goods that have become so related to particular real property that an interest in them arises under real property law. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • 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
  • Foreign corporation: means a corporation for profit that is incorporated under laws other than the laws of the state. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • General intangible: means any personal property, including things in action, other than accounts, chattel paper, commercial tort claims, deposit accounts, documents, goods, instruments, investment property, letter-of-credit rights, letters of credit, money and oil, gas or other minerals before extraction. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Goods: means all things that are movable when a security interest attaches. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. Source: OCC
  • 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 or any other writing that evidences a right to the payment of a monetary obligation, is not itself a security agreement or lease, and is of a type that in ordinary course of business is transferred by delivery with any necessary indorsement or assignment. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
  • Inventory: means goods, other than farm products, which:

    (A) Are leased by a person as lessor;

    (B) Are held by a person for sale or lease or to be furnished under a contract of service;

    (C) Are furnished by a person under a contract of service; or

    (D) Consist of raw materials, work in process, or materials used or consumed in a business. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Investment property: means a security, whether certificated or uncertificated, security entitlement, securities account, commodity contract or commodity account. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • judicial department: means the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Oregon Tax Court, the circuit courts and all administrative divisions of those courts, whether denominated as boards, commissions, committees or departments or by any other designation. See Oregon Statutes 174.113
  • 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
  • Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
  • Letter-of-credit right: means a right to payment or performance under a letter of credit, whether or not the beneficiary has demanded or is at the time entitled to demand payment or performance. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • local government: means all cities, counties and local service districts located in this state, and all administrative subdivisions of those cities, counties and local service districts. See Oregon Statutes 174.116
  • Manufactured structure: has the meaning given that term in ORS § 446. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Manufactured-structure transaction: means a secured transaction:

    (A) That creates a purchase-money security interest in a manufactured structure, other than a manufactured structure held as inventory; or

    (B) In which a manufactured structure, other than a manufactured structure held as inventory, is the primary collateral. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Mortgage: means a consensual interest in real property, including fixtures, which secures payment or performance of an obligation. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • New debtor: means a person that becomes bound as debtor under ORS § 79. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • 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.
  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
  • Payment intangible: means a general intangible under which the account debtor's principal obligation is a monetary obligation. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental subdivision or public or private organization of any character other than an agency. See Oregon Statutes 183.310
  • Person: means an individual or entity. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • 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.
  • Principal office: means the physical street address of an office, in or out of this state, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located and designated in the annual report or in the application for authority to transact business in this state. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
  • Proceeding: means a civil, criminal, administrative or investigatory action. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Promissory note: means an instrument that evidences a promise to pay a monetary obligation, does not evidence an order to pay, and does not contain an acknowledgment by a bank that the bank has received for deposit a sum of money or funds. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Public organic record: means a record that is available to the public for inspection and is:

    (A) A record consisting of the record initially filed with or issued by a state or the United States to form or organize an organization and any record filed with or issued by the state or the United States that amends or restates the initial record;

    (B) An organic record of a business trust consisting of the record initially filed with a state and any record filed with the state that amends or restates the initial record, if a statute of the state governing business trusts requires that the record be filed with the state; or

    (C) A record consisting of legislation enacted by the legislature of a state or the Congress of the United States that forms or organizes an organization, any record amending the legislation and any record filed with or issued by the state or the United States that amends or restates the name of the organization. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Public-finance transaction: means a secured transaction in connection with which:

    (A) Debt securities are issued;

    (B) All or a portion of the securities issued have an initial stated maturity of at least 20 years; and

    (C) The debtor, obligor, secured party, account debtor or other person obligated on collateral, assignor or assignee of a secured obligation, or assignor or assignee of a security interest is a state or a governmental unit of a state. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
  • Record date: means the date established under this chapter on which a corporation determines the identity of the corporation's shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Registered organization: includes a business trust that is formed or organized under the law of a single state if a statute of the state governing business trusts requires that the business trust's organic record be filed with the state. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
  • Remote communication: means any method by which a person that is not physically present at the location at which a meeting occurs may nevertheless hear or otherwise communicate at substantially the same time with other persons at the meeting and have access to materials necessary to participate or vote in the meeting to the extent of the person's authorization to participate or vote. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  • Rule: means any agency directive, standard, regulation or statement of general applicability that implements, interprets or prescribes law or policy, or describes the procedure or practice requirements of any agency. See Oregon Statutes 183.310
  • Security agreement: means an agreement that creates or provides for a security interest. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Sentencing guidelines: A set of rules and principles established by the United States Sentencing Commission that trial judges use to determine the sentence for a convicted defendant. Source: U.S. Courts
  • 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.
  • Share: means a unit into which the proprietary interest in a corporation is divided. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Shareholder: means a person in whose name a share is registered in the records of a corporation or the beneficial owner of a share to the extent of the rights granted by a nominee certificate on file with a corporation. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Sign: means to indicate a present intent to authenticate or adopt a document by:

    (a) Affixing a symbol to the document;

    (b) Inscribing or affixing a manual, facsimile or conformed signature on the document; or

    (c) Attaching to, or logically associating with, an electronic transmission any electronic sound, symbol or process, including an electronic signature. See Oregon Statutes 60.001

  • Software: means a computer program and any supporting information provided in connection with a transaction relating to the program. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • state government: means the executive department, the judicial department and the legislative department. See Oregon Statutes 174.111
  • State Treasury: includes those financial assets the lawful custody of which are vested in the State Treasurer and the office of the State Treasurer relating to the custody of those financial assets. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
  • Supporting obligation: means a letter-of-credit right or secondary obligation that supports the payment or performance of an account, chattel paper, a document, a general intangible, an instrument or investment property. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Tangible chattel paper: means chattel paper evidenced by a record or records consisting of information that is inscribed on a tangible medium. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102
  • Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
  • Termination statement: means an amendment of a financing statement which:

    (A) Identifies, by its file number, the initial financing statement to which it relates; and

    (B) Indicates either that it is a termination statement or that the identified financing statement is no longer effective. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Transmitting utility: means an organization primarily engaged in the business of:

    (A) Operating a railroad, subway, street railway or trolley bus;

    (B) Transmitting communications electrically, electromagnetically or by light;

    (C) Transmitting goods by pipeline or sewer; or

    (D) Transmitting or producing and transmitting electricity, steam, gas or water. See Oregon Statutes 79.0102

  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
  • 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
  • United States: means the federal government or a district, authority, bureau, commission, department or any other agency of the United States. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
  • Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
  • Voting group: means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or this chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
  • Written: means embodied as a document. See Oregon Statutes 60.001