Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 4-5 - Tuberculosis Control

• Adult: means an individual who is at least eighteen (18) years of age. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• advisor: includes a trust "protector" or any other person who, in addition to a qualified trustee, holds one or more trust powers. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Assignment: includes any written stock power, bond power, bill of sale, deed, declaration of trust, or other instrument of transfer. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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}
• Beneficiary: means an individual for whom property has been transferred to or held under a declaration of trust by a custodial trustee for the individual's use and benefit under this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Bequeath: To gift property by will.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Charitable purpose: means the relief of poverty, the advancement of education or religion, the promotion of health, the promotion of a governmental purpose, or any other purpose the achievement of which is beneficial to the community. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2
• Claim: means a right to payment, whether or not the right is reduced to judgment, liquidated, unliquidated, fixed, contingent, matured, unmatured, disputed, undisputed, legal equitable, secured or unsecured. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Claim of beneficial interest: includes a claim of any interest by a decedent's legatee, distributee, heir or creditor, a beneficiary under a trust, a ward, a beneficial owner of a security registered in the name of a nominee, or a minor owner of a security registered in the name of a custodian, or a claim of any similar interest, whether the claim is asserted by the claimant or by a fiduciary or by any other authorized person on his or her behalf, and includes a claim that the transfer would be in breach of fiduciary duties. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• 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 Reinvestment Act: The Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. It was enacted by the Congress in 1977. ^{Source: OCC}
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conservator: means a person appointed or qualified by a court to manage the estate of an individual or a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• 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.
• Corporation: means a private or public corporation, association, or trust issuing a security. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Court: means the probate courts of this state. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Creditor: means , with respect to a transferor, a person who has claim. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Custodial trust property: means an interest in property transferred to or held under a declaration of trust by a custodial trustee under this chapter and the income from and proceeds of that interest. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Custodial trustee: means a person designated as trustee of a custodial trust under this chapter or a substitute or successor to the designated person. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Debt: means liability on a claim. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Descendent: One who is directly descended from another such as a child, grandchild, or great grandchild.
• 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.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Disposition: means a transfer, conveyance or assignment of property (including a change in the legal ownership of property occurring upon the substitution of one trustee for another or the addition of one or more new trustees), or the exercise of a power so as to cause a transfer of property, to a trustee or trustees, but shall not include the release or relinquishment of an interest that theretofore was the subject of a qualified disposition. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Endowment fund: means an institutional fund or part thereof that, under the terms of a gift instrument, is not wholly expendable by the institution on a current basis. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: means an executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, committee, conservator, curator, tutor, custodian, or nominee. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• 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}
• former spouse: means only persons to whom the transferor was married at, or before the time the qualified disposition is made. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gift instrument: means a record or records, including an institutional solicitation, under which property is granted to, transferred to, or held by an institution as an institutional fund. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2
• 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.
• Guardian: means a person appointed or qualified by a court as a guardian of an individual, including a limited guardian, but not a person who is only a guardian ad litem. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• Incapacitated: means lacking the ability to manage property and business affairs effectively by reason of mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication, confinement, detention by a foreign power, disappearance, minority, or other disabling cause. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institution: means :

  (i)  a person, other than an individual, organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes;

  (ii)  a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, to the extent that it holds funds exclusively for a charitable purpose; or

  (iii)  a trust that had both charitable and noncharitable interests, after all noncharitable interests have terminated. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2

• Institutional fund: means a fund held by an institution exclusively for charitable purposes. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Kiting: Writing a check in an amount that will overdraw the account but making up the deficiency by depositing another check on another bank. For example, mailing a check for the mortgage when your checking account has insufficient funds to cover the check, but counting on receiving and depositing your paycheck before the mortgage company presents the check for payment. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Legal representative: means a personal representative or conservator. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• 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.
• 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}
• 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.
• Motor vehicle: means any vehicle driven or drawn by mechanical power for use on the public streets, roads, and highways;

  (2)  "Odometer" means an instrument for measuring and recording the actual distance a motor vehicle travels while in operation;

  (3)  "Person" means any individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or business trust including, but not limited to, private individuals and motor vehicle dealers, both wholesale and retail, whether the private individual or dealer is a dealer in the ordinary course of business or not;

  (4)  "Repair and replacement" means to restore to a sound working condition by replacing the instrument or any part thereof or by correcting what is inoperative;

  (5)  "Transfer" means to acquire ownership by purchase, gift, bequest, or any other means. See Rhode Island General Laws 31-23.2-2

• National Credit Union Administration: The federal regulatory agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions. (NCUA also administers the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, which insures the deposits of federal credit unions.) ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: includes affirmation; the word "sworn" includes affirmed; and the word "engaged" includes either sworn or affirmed. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-11
• 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.
• 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.
• Person: includes an individual, a corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two (2) or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, joint venture, association, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Person: means an individual, business corporation, nonprofit corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, general cooperative association, limited cooperative association, unincorporated nonprofit association, cooperative housing corporation, workers' cooperative, producers' cooperative, consumer's cooperative, statutory trust, business trust, common-law business trust, estate, trust, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-13.1-102
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: means an executor, administrator, or a special administrator of a decedent's estate, a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions, or a successor to any of them. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• 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}
• Probate: Proving a will
• Property: includes real property, personal property, and interests in real or personal property. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Qualified disposition: means a disposition by or from a transferor to a trustee, with or without consideration, by means of a trust instrument. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Qualified trustee: means a person who:

  (i)  In the case of natural person, is a resident of this state other than the transferor, or, in all other cases, is authorized by the provisions of the general or public laws to act as a trustee, and whose activities are subject to supervision by the department of business regulation, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency, or the Office of Thrift Supervision, or any successor to them; and

  (ii)  Maintains or arranges for custody in this state of some or all of the property that is the subject of the qualified disposition, maintains records for the trust on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis, prepares or arranges for the preparation of fiduciary income tax returns for the trust, or otherwise materially participates in the administration of the trust. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2

• real estate: may be construed to include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-10
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium, or that is stored in an electronic or other medium, and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-12.1-2
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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.
• Revolving credit: A credit agreement (typically a credit card) that allows a customer to borrow against a preapproved credit line when purchasing goods and services. The borrower is only billed for the amount that is actually borrowed plus any interest due. (Also called a charge account or open-end credit.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• seal: shall be construed to include an impression of the seal made with or without the use of wax or wafer on the paper. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-15
• Security: includes any share of stock, bond, debenture, note, or other security issued by a corporation that is registered as to ownership on the books of the corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• 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.
• State: means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• Transfer: means a change on the books of a corporation in the registered ownership of a security. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• Transfer agent: means a person employed or authorized by a corporation to transfer securities issued by the corporation. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-11-2
• Transferor: means a natural person who, or entity which, as an owner of property or as a holder of a general power of appointment, which authorizes the holder to appoint in favor of the holder, the holder's creditors, the holder's estate or the creditors of the holder's estate, or as a trustee, directly or indirectly, makes a disposition or causes a disposition to be made. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2
• Transferor: means a person who creates a custodial trust by transfer or declaration. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trust company: means a financial institution, corporation, or other legal entity, authorized to exercise general trust powers. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-13-1
• Trust instrument: means an instrument appointing a qualified trustee or qualified trustees for the property that is the subject of a disposition, which instrument:

  (i)  Expressly incorporates the general or public laws of this state to govern the validity, construction, and administration of the trust;

  (ii)  Is irrevocable; provided, that a trust instrument shall not be deemed revocable due to its inclusion in one or more of the following:

  (A)  A transferor's power to veto a distribution from the trust;

  (B)  A power of appointment (other than a power to appoint to the transferor, the transferor's creditors, the transferor's estate or the creditors of the transferor's estate) exercisable by will or other written instrument of the transferor effective only upon the transferor's death;

  (C)  The transferor's potential or actual receipt of income, including rights to such income retained in the trust instrument;

  (D)  The transferor's potential or actual receipt of income or principal from a charitable remainder unitrust or charitable remainder annuity trust as such terms are defined in § 664 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [26 U. See Rhode Island General Laws 18-9.2-2

• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustor: The person who makes or creates a trust. Also known as the grantor or settlor.
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.