Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 16 > Chapter 18 - Municipal Courts-Judges

• 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.
• Any law to the contrary: includes , but is not limited to, any conflicting provision of any general statute, local law, private act, charter provision, municipal law or municipal ordinance. See Tennessee Code 16-18-301
• 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.
• 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.
• Bailee: means a person that by a warehouse receipt, bill of lading, or other document of title acknowledges possession of goods and contracts to deliver them. See Tennessee Code 47-7-102
• 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}
• Business: means every trade, occupation, profession, investment activity, and other lawful purpose for gain or the preservation of assets, whether or not carried on for profit. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• buyer: means a person who buys goods or obtains services from a retail seller in a retail installment transaction and not principally for the purpose of resale. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Cash sale price: means the price for which the seller would have sold or furnished to the buyer, and the buyer would have bought or obtained from the seller, the goods or services which are the subject matter of the retail installment transaction, if such sale had been a sale for cash. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• contract: means an instrument or instruments evidencing one (1) or more retail installment transactions entered into in this state pursuant to which a buyer promises to pay in installments for goods or services. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• 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 mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• 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.
• Dissolution: means that the LLC has incurred an event under §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Distributed ledger technology: means any distributed ledger protocol and supporting infrastructure, including blockchain, that uses a distributed, decentralized, shared, and replicated ledger, whether it be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, and which may include the use of electronic currencies or electronic tokens as a medium of electronic exchange. See Tennessee Code 47-10-201
• domestic: means a limited liability company formed under this chapter, or a limited liability company formed under the Tennessee Limited Liability Company Act, compiled in chapters 201-248 of this title, that has elected to be governed by this chapter, or, where expressly indicated, a limited liability company formed under and governed by the Tennessee Limited Liability Company Act. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• 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.
• Entity: means , whether foreign or domestic and whether for profit or not-for-profit, limited liability companies, corporations, unincorporated associations, real estate investment trusts, statutory or business trusts or associations, estates, general partnerships, limited partnerships, registered or unregistered limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships or similar organizations, trusts, joint ventures, two (2) or more persons having a joint or common economic interest, and local, municipal, state, United States and foreign governments. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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: means a limited liability company that is formed under the laws of a jurisdiction other than this state. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• Good faith: means honesty in fact in the conduct or transaction concerned. See Tennessee Code 47-7-102
• Goods: means all things that are treated as movable for the purposes of a contract for storage or transportation. See Tennessee Code 47-7-102
• Goods: includes goods which, at the time of the sale or subsequently, are to be so affixed to real property as to become a part thereof, whether or not severable therefrom. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Industrial building: means any one (1) or combination of two (2) or more buildings, structures, or facilities to be used as a factory, mill, shop, processing plant, assembly plant, fabricating plant, ship canal, port or port facility, dock or dock facility, harbor facility, and railroads, railway terminals, railway belt lines and switches, to be rented or leased to an industrial concern by the municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-55-102
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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}
• 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.
• LLC: means a limited liability company, organized under chapters 201-248 of this title. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Manager: means a person who is vested with authority as a manager under §. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• Member: means a person that has been admitted to an LLC as a member, as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Month: means the time from any day of any month to the corresponding day of the succeeding month, if any, and if none, the last day of the succeeding month. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• 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.
• Municipal court: includes the city, town, mayor's, recorder's or municipal court, or other similarly functioning court, however designated, for any city, town, municipality or metropolitan government, whether the court exists pursuant to general statute, local law, private act, charter provision, municipal law, municipal ordinance or other legal authorization. See Tennessee Code 16-18-301
• Municipality: includes any county, or incorporated city or town of the state. See Tennessee Code 7-55-102
• 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}
• 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.
• Official fees: means :
  (A) The fees prescribed by law for filing, recording or otherwise perfecting or releasing or satisfying any title or lien retained or taken by seller in connection with a retail installment transaction. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• 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 a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• Proceeding: means any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative, and whether formal or informal. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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}
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Retail charge agreement: means an instrument or instruments prescribing the terms of retail installment transactions which may be made thereafter from time to time pursuant thereto, under which the buyer's total unpaid balance, whenever incurred, is payable in installments over a period of time and under the terms of which a time price differential, as defined in subdivision (10), is to be computed in relation to the buyer's unpaid balance from time to time. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Secretary: means the corporate officer to whom the bylaws or the board of directors has delegated responsibility under §. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• seller: means a person regularly engaged in, and whose business consists to a substantial extent of, selling goods to a retail buyer. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Services: means work or labor furnished, whether or not furnished in connection with the delivery, installation, servicing, repair or improvement of goods and includes repairs, alterations or improvements upon or in connection with real property. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• 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.
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Smart contract: means an event-driven computer program, that executes on an electronic, distributed, decentralized, shared, and replicated ledger that is used to automate transactions, including, but not limited to, transactions that:
  (A) Take custody over and instruct transfer of assets on that ledger. See Tennessee Code 47-10-201
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Time price differential: means the amount, however denominated or expressed, which the retail buyer contracts to pay or pays for the privilege of purchasing goods or services to be paid for by the buyer in installments. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• 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.
• transaction: means a contract to sell or furnish or the sale of or the furnishing of goods or services by a retail seller to a retail buyer pursuant to a retail installment contract or a retail charge agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-11-102
• Transfer: means an assignment, conveyance, deed, bill of sale, lease, mortgage, security interest, encumbrance, gift and transfer by operation of law. See Tennessee Code 48-249-102
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• 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: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105