Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 52 - Civil Actions

• Academic year: means the year beginning July 1 of each year and ending June 30 of the following year running concurrently with the fiscal year. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Accessory building or structure: means any portable, demountable or permanent structure, including but not limited to cabanas, ramadas, storage sheds, garages, awnings, carports, decks, steps, ramps, piers and pilings, that is:

  (a) Owned and used solely by a tenant of a manufactured dwelling or floating home; or

  (b) Provided pursuant to a written rental agreement for the sole use of and maintenance by a tenant of a manufactured dwelling or floating home. See Oregon Statutes 90.100

• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• Action: includes recoupment, counterclaim, setoff, suit in equity and any other proceeding in which rights are determined, including an action for possession. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Applicant screening charge: means any payment of money required by a landlord of an applicant prior to entering into a rental agreement with that applicant for a residential dwelling unit, the purpose of which is to pay the cost of processing an application for a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Attorney: includes an associate member of the Oregon State Bar practicing law within the member's approved scope of practice. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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.
• 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}
• Bias crime: has the meaning given that term in ORS § 147. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Board: means the Workers' Compensation Board created by ORS § 656. See Oregon Statutes 654.005
• Board: means the board of education of a community college district. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Board member: means a member of the board of education of a community college district. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Bureau: means the Bureau of Labor and Industries. See Oregon Statutes 651.010
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries. See Oregon Statutes 651.010
• 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.
• community college: means a public institution operated by a community college district for the purposes of providing courses of study limited to not more than two years' full-time attendance and designed to meet the needs of a geographical area by providing educational services, including but not limited to career and technical education programs or lower division collegiate programs. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Community college district: includes a community college service district. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Conduct: means the commission of an act or the failure to act. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Control point: means a horizontal or vertical survey position set within the stated precision of the survey. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• county court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 202.010
• County court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• County surveyor: means an individual appointed or elected to the office of county surveyor and who is responsible for performing the duties of such office as described by law. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• DBH: means the diameter at breast height, which is measured as the width of a standing tree at four and one-half feet above the ground on the uphill side. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Department: means the Department of Consumer and Business Services. See Oregon Statutes 654.005
• 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.
• Deputy county surveyor: means an individual appointed by the county surveyor to the office of deputy county surveyor. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. See Oregon Statutes 654.005
• Director: means the Director of the Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development appointed under ORS § 350. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• district: means a district formed under this chapter to operate one or more community colleges or to secure educational services available at a community college. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Dwelling unit: means a structure or the part of a structure that is used as a home, residence or sleeping place by one person who maintains a household or by two or more persons who maintain a common household. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Facility: means a manufactured dwelling park or a marina. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Fee: means a nonrefundable payment of money. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Floating home: has the meaning given that term in ORS § 830. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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}
• 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}
• Gender identity: means an individual's gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior, regardless of whether the identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that associated with the gender assigned to the individual at birth. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Geodetic control: means horizontal or vertical survey monuments that are primarily intended to be used as reference positions for other surveys or that serve to extend the national geodetic control network. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• Good faith: means honesty in fact in the conduct of the transaction concerned. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Hazard tree: means a tree that:

  (a) Is located on a rented space in a manufactured dwelling park;

  (b) Measures at least eight inches DBH; and

  (c) Is considered, by an arborist licensed as a landscape construction professional pursuant to ORS § 671. See Oregon Statutes 90.100

• 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}
• Informal dispute resolution: includes voluntary consultation between the landlord or landlord's agent and one or more tenants or voluntary mediation utilizing the services of a third party, but does not include mandatory mediation or arbitration. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• 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.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Landlord: includes a person who is authorized by the owner, lessor or sublessor to manage the premises or to enter into a rental agreement. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Manufactured dwelling: includes an accessory building or structure. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Manufactured dwelling park: means a place where four or more manufactured dwellings are located, the primary purpose of which is to rent space or keep space for rent to any person for a charge or fee. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Marina: means a moorage of contiguous dwelling units that may be legally transferred as a single unit and are owned by one person where four or more floating homes are secured, the primary purpose of which is to rent space or keep space for rent to any person for a charge or fee. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Monument: means any permanent material object or collection of objects, either natural or man-made, that indicates the position on the ground of a survey station, public land survey corner or accessories, or a land boundary corner established by a qualified surveyor. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Organization: includes a corporation, government, governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest, and any other legal or commercial entity. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Owner: means every person having ownership, control or custody of any place of employment or of the construction, repair or maintenance of any place of employment. See Oregon Statutes 654.005
• Owner: includes a mortgagee in possession and means one or more persons, jointly or severally, in whom is vested:

  (a) All or part of the legal title to property; or

  (b) All or part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the premises. See Oregon Statutes 90.100

• Paying agent and registrar: means the county treasurer or county fiscal officer of the county in which the chief administrative officer of the community college district maintains the administrative office. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Person: means one or more individuals, legal representatives, partnerships, joint ventures, associations, corporations (whether or not organized for profit), business trusts, any organized group of persons, the state, state agencies, counties, municipal corporations, school districts and other public corporations or subdivisions. See Oregon Statutes 654.005
• Person: includes an individual or organization. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• 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.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Principal county: means the county in which the chief administrative officer of the community college district maintains the administrative office. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Probate: Proving a will
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public land survey corner: means a section corner, one-quarter section corner, Donation Land Claim corner, meander corner, witness corner or any other corner established by the General Land Office or its successor. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Registered professional land surveyor: has the meaning given that term in ORS § 672. See Oregon Statutes 209.005
• Rent: means any payment to be made to the landlord under the rental agreement, periodic or otherwise, in exchange for the right of a tenant and any permitted pet to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of others and to use the premises. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Rental agreement: includes a lease. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Screening or admission criteria: means a written statement of any factors a landlord considers in deciding whether to accept or reject an applicant and any qualifications required for acceptance. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Sexual assault: has the meaning given that term in ORS § 147. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Sexual orientation: means an individual's actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Stalking: means the behavior described in ORS § 163. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Statement of policy: means the summary explanation of information and facility policies to be provided to prospective and existing tenants under ORS § 90. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• successor: means a business or enterprise that is substantially the same entity as the predecessor employer according to criteria adopted by the department by rule. See Oregon Statutes 654.005
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• 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.
• 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.
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• 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.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Violation: means an offense described in ORS § 153. See Oregon Statutes 153.005
• Violation proceeding: means a judicial proceeding initiated by issuance of a citation that charges a person with commission of a violation. See Oregon Statutes 153.005