Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 2 > Chapter 7 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Agency: means an authority, board, branch, commission, committee, department, division, or other instrumentality of the executive department of state government, including administrative bodies and bodies corporate and politic established as an instrumentality of the State. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Alternative payment method: means fee payments as provided in § 12-44-50(A)(3). See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• 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.
• Ancillary administration: Probate administration of property (usually real property) owned in a State other than the one in which the decedent had his (her) principal residence at the time of death.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Ball: means a ball, disk, square, or other object upon which is printed a letter and number which corresponds to the letter and number of a square on a bingo card. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• 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.
• beer: has the meaning s provided pursuant to § 61-4-10(1) and (2);
  
  (4) The word "wine" means all wines containing not more than twenty-one per cent of alcohol by volume; and
  
  (5) (Reserved);
  
  (6) The word "producer" means a brewery or winery or a manufacturer or bottler or an importer into the United States of beer or wine, or both. See South Carolina Code 12-21-1010
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Building: means a structure surrounded by exterior walls or permanent firewalls. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Cage: means a device, whether operated manually or by air blower, in which bingo balls are placed before the bingo game begins. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Caller: means the house representative who is responsible for drawing bingo balls and announcing the configuration and the result of each drawing to the players. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Card: means a printed or nonprinted design on which there are arranged five horizontal rows and five vertical columns forming twenty-five squares. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Claimant agency: means a state agency, board, committee, commission, public institution of higher learning, political subdivision, or other governmental or quasi-governmental entity of any state or the United States. See South Carolina Code 12-56-20
• 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.
• Commencement date: means the last day of the property tax year during which economic development property is placed in service, except that this date must not be later than the last day of the property tax year which is three years from the year in which the county and the sponsor enter into a fee agreement. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conference committee: A temporary, ad hoc panel composed of conferees from both chamber of a legislature which is formed for the purpose of reconciling differences in legislation that has passed both chambers. Conference committees are usually convened to resolve bicameral differences on major and controversial legislation.
• Conference report: The compromise product negotiated by the conference committee. The "conference report" is submitted to each chamber for its consideration, such as approval or disapproval.
• 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.
• County: means the county or counties in which the project is proposed to be located. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• County council: means the governing body of the county in which the economic development property is located, except as specifically provided by § 12-44-40(H). See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Debtor: means a person having a delinquent debt or account with a claimant agency which has not been adjusted, satisfied, or set aside by court order, or discharged in bankruptcy. See South Carolina Code 12-56-20
• Decedent: means a deceased person. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Deficiency: means the amount by which the tax imposed by this chapter exceeds:
  
  (1) the sum of:
  
  (a) the amount shown as the tax by the taxpayer upon his return, if a return was made by the taxpayer and an amount was shown as the tax by the taxpayer thereon, plus
  
  (b) the amounts previously assessed (or collected without assessment) as a deficiency, over
  
  (2) the amount of any credits allowable with respect thereto. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Delinquent debt: means a sum due and owing a claimant agency, including collection costs, court costs, fines, penalties, and interest which have accrued through contract, subrogation, tort, operation of law, or other legal theory regardless of whether there is an outstanding judgment for that sum which is legally collectible and for which a collection effort has been or is being made. See South Carolina Code 12-56-20
• Department: means the South Carolina Department of Revenue. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Department: means the South Carolina Department of Revenue. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Department: means the South Carolina Department of Revenue. See South Carolina Code 12-56-20
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Distributor: means a person who brings or sells bingo cards in this State and who is approved by the department. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Drawing: means the indiscriminate selection of a single ball from the cage. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Economic development property: means each item of real and tangible personal property comprising a project which satisfies the provisions of § 12-44-40(C) and other requirements of this chapter and is subject to a fee agreement. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Electronic dabber: means a hand-held electronic device that allows a player to store, display, and mark bingo card faces that have been downloaded or activated as authorized by the bingo ticket. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Employee: includes an individual who contracts with an agency for personal services. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• Employee: includes a resident individual receiving wages, as defined in § 12-8-520(D), for services regardless of where the services are rendered and nonresident individual receiving wages, as defined in § 12-8-520(D), for services rendered in this State. See South Carolina Code 12-8-10
• Enhanced investment: means a project that results in a total investment:
  
  (a) by a single sponsor investing at least one hundred fifty million dollars and creating at least one hundred twenty-five new full-time jobs at the project; provided that the new full-time jobs requirement of this subsection does not apply to a taxpayer who paid more than fifty percent of all property taxes actually collected in the county for more than twenty-five years, ending on the date of the fee agreement;
  
  (b) by a single sponsor investing at least four hundred million dollars; or
  
  (c) that satisfies the requirements of § 11-41-30(2)(a), and for which the Secretary of Commerce has delivered certification pursuant to § 11-41-70(2)(a). See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Executor: means personal representative as defined in item (9) of this section. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Exemption period: means the period beginning on the first day of the property tax year after the property tax year in which an applicable piece of economic development property is placed in service and ending on the termination date. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Fair: means a recognized annual state or county fair. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• 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 credit: means the maximum amount of the credit for state death taxes allowable by Internal Revenue Code Section 2011. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Fee: means the amount paid in lieu of ad valorem property tax as provided in the fee agreement. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Fee agreement: means an agreement between the sponsor and the county obligating the sponsor to pay fees instead of property taxes during the exemption period for each item of economic development property as more particularly described in § 12-44-40. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fund: means the Parks and Recreation Development Fund. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• game: means a specific game of chance, commonly known as bingo, in which prizes are awarded on the basis of designated numbers or symbols on a card conforming to numbers and symbols selected at random. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• Gross estate: means "gross estate" as defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 2031. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• House: means the nonprofit organization and promoter licensed with the department. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• individual: means a human being. See South Carolina Code 12-2-20
• Inducement resolution: means a resolution of the county setting forth the commitment of the county to enter into a fee agreement. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Industrial development park: means an industrial or business park developed by two or more counties as defined in § 4-1-170. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Intangible personal property: means incorporeal personal property including deposits in banks, negotiable instruments, mortgages, debts, receivables, shares of stock, bonds, notes, creditors, evidences of an interest in property, evidences of debt, and choses in action generally. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Internal Revenue Code: means the Internal Revenue Code as described in § 12-6-40(A). See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Investment period: means the period beginning with the first day that economic development property is purchased or acquired and ending five years after the commencement date; except that for a project with an enhanced investment as described above, the period ends eight years after the commencement date. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• 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}
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• 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.
• Manufacturer: means a person who manufactures bingo cards for use in this State and who is approved by the department. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Marker: means a device which indicates the number called. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Master-board: means the receptacle used by the house to display balls which are drawn during the bingo game. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Minimum investment: means an investment in the project of at least two and one-half million dollars within the investment period. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Net estate: means the net estate as determined under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Nonprofit organization: means an entity which is organized and operated exclusively for charitable, religious, or fraternal purposes and which is exempt from federal income taxes pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), 501(c)(7), 501(c)(8), 501(c)(10), or 501(c)(19). See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Nonresident: means a decedent who was domiciled outside of this State at his death. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Notice: means a notice of assessment issued by the department to the taxpayer pursuant to the South Carolina Revenue Procedures Act. See South Carolina Code 12-55-30
• 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.
• Original transferor: means any transferor, as defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 2652, who by grant, gift, trust, will, or otherwise makes a transfer of real or personal property that results in a federal generation-skipping transfer tax under applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code at any time and for which a credit is available under Section 2604. See South Carolina Code 12-16-710
• Overdue tax debt: means any part of a tax debt that remains unpaid one hundred twenty days or more after the taxpayer receives notice as defined in § 12-55-30(A)(2). See South Carolina Code 12-55-30
• partnership: includes a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a partnership;
  
  (2) "partner" includes a member of a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a partnership;
  
  (3) "corporation" includes a limited liability company or professional or other association taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a corporation; and
  
  (4) "shareholder" includes a member of a limited liability company taxed for South Carolina income tax purposes as a corporation. See South Carolina Code 12-2-25
• 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: means :
  
  (a) an individual, labor union and organization, joint apprenticeship committee, partnership, association, corporation, legal representative, mutual company, joint-stock company, trust, unincorporated organization, trustee, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver, or other legal or commercial entity located in part or in whole in the State or doing business in the State;
  
  (b) the State and any agency or local subdivision of an agency; or
  
  (c) a political subdivision. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• person: includes any individual, trust, estate, partnership, receiver, association, company, limited liability company, corporation, or other entity or group; and
  
  (2) "individual" means a human being. See South Carolina Code 12-2-20
• Person: means persons, corporations, associations, joint stock companies, and business trusts. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: means the personal representative of the estate of the decedent, appointed, qualified, and acting within the State, or, if there is no personal representative appointed, qualified, and acting within the State, then any person in actual or constructive possession of the South Carolina gross estate of the decedent. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Player: means one who participates in a game of bingo other than as an agent, promoter, or representative of the house. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• 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.
• Political subdivision: includes a county, city, municipality, town, village, township, district, authority, special purpose district, school district, other local government entity, or other public corporation or entity whether organized and existing under charter or general law. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• Political subdivision: includes the Municipal Association of South Carolina and the South Carolina Association of Counties when these organizations submit claims on behalf of a county or local governmental or quasi-governmental entity. See South Carolina Code 12-56-20
• 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.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Project: means land, buildings, and other improvements on the land, including water, sewage treatment and disposal facilities, air pollution control facilities, and all other machinery, apparatus, equipment, office facilities, and furnishings which are considered necessary, suitable, or useful by a sponsor. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Promoter: means an individual, corporation, partnership, or organization licensed as a professional solicitor by the Secretary of State who is hired by a nonprofit organization to manage, operate, or conduct the licensee's bingo game. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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}
• Refund: means any individual or corporate South Carolina income tax refund payable. See South Carolina Code 12-56-20
• 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.
• Resident: means a decedent who was domiciled in this State at his death. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Session: means a consecutive series of games which must occur only between the hours of 12:00 p. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• 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.
• Site system: means a computer accounting system commonly referred to as a point of sale system used in conjunction with electronic dabbers. See South Carolina Code 12-21-3920
• Sponsor: means one or more entities which sign the fee agreement with the county and makes the minimum investment, subject to the provisions of § 12-44-40, each of which makes the minimum investment as provided in item (13) and also includes a sponsor affiliate unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• Sponsor affiliate: means an entity that joins with or is an affiliate of a sponsor and that participates in the investment in, or financing of, a project. See South Carolina Code 12-44-30
• State: means any state, territory, or possession of the United States and the District of Columbia. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• State officer: means any of the following:
  
  (a) the Governor;
  
  (b) the Lieutenant Governor;
  
  (c) the Secretary of State;
  
  (d) the State Comptroller General;
  
  (e) the State Treasurer;
  
  (f) the Attorney General;
  
  (g) the Superintendent of Education;
  
  (h) the Commissioner of Agriculture; or
  
  (i) the Adjutant General. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tangible personal property: means corporeal personal property, including money. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Tax debt: means the total amount of tax, fees, penalties, interest, and costs for which notice has been issued by the department to the taxpayer. See South Carolina Code 12-55-30
• Taxable estate: means "taxable estate" as defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 2051. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• 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.
• Transfer: includes the passing of property or any interest therein, in possession or enjoyment, present or future, by inheritance, descent, devise, succession, bequest, grant, deed, bargain, sale, gift, or appointment in the manner herein described. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: when used in a geographical sense includes only the fifty states and the District of Columbia. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• Value: means "value" as finally determined for federal estate tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code. See South Carolina Code 12-16-20
• wholesaler: means any person who makes the first sale within this State or who sells or distributes any quantity of beer or wine to any other person for resale, but the term shall not include any person who produces wine in the State from fruits grown within the State by or for the manufacturer;
  
  (2) The word "retailer" means any person who sells or distributes any quantity of beer or wine to a consumer;
  
  (3) The word "beer" has the meanings provided pursuant to § 61-4-10(1) and (2);
  
  (4) The word "wine" means all wines containing not more than twenty-one per cent of alcohol by volume; and
  
  (5) (Reserved);
  
  (6) The word "producer" means a brewery or winery or a manufacturer or bottler or an importer into the United States of beer or wine, or both. See South Carolina Code 12-21-1010
• Withholding agent: means a person required to withhold income taxes under the provisions of this chapter. See South Carolina Code 12-8-10
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Wrongdoing: means action by an agency which results in substantial abuse, misuse, destruction, or loss of substantial public funds or public resources. See South Carolina Code 1-6-10