Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 20 > Chapter 9 - Trial

• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Articles of conversion: means the form of articles provided for in chapter 204 of this title creating a new LLC and evidencing the conversion of an existing partnership or corporation to the new LLC which shall have all of the assets and liabilities of the former partnership. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• articles of organization: means in the case of an LLC organized under chapters 201-248 of this title, articles of organization, articles of amendment, articles of correction, certificates of merger, and all similar documents required to be filed with any of the foregoing as part of the formation and continuation of an LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter and any assistant thereto by whatever name known, any district attorney general and any assistant thereto by whatever name called, and any officer or full-time employee of the general assembly or any committee thereof established by statute, who is duly licensed to practice law in Tennessee, whose duty it is to provide facilities for drafting bills or to assist individual legislators in drafting bills or who renders legal advice and services to the members of the general assembly or committees thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Authority: means a port authority created pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• 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.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Board: means the Tennessee board of court reporting. See Tennessee Code 20-9-602
• Board: means a G&. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• Board: means the board of commissioners of an authority. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• board of directors: means the governing board of a corporation, whether denominated the board of directors or otherwise, except that no person or group of persons is the board of directors because of powers delegated to that person or group pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• board of governors: means the board of governors of an LLC electing to be board-managed or, in the case of a foreign limited liability company, its equivalent. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Board-managed: means an LLC organized pursuant to this title that elected pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Business: includes every trade, occupation, profession, investment activity and other lawful purpose for gain or the preservation of assets whether or not carried on for profits. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Bylaws: means the code or codes of rules (other than the charter) adopted pursuant to chapters 51-68 of this title for the regulation or management of the affairs of the corporation irrespective of the name or names by which such rules are designated. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Charge to the jury: The judge's instructions to the jury concerning the law that applies to the facts of the case on trial.
• Charter: includes amended and restated charters and articles of merger. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• City governing body: means the city council or other public agency possessing power and authority usually possessed by a city council. See Tennessee Code 7-1-101
• Class: when used with reference to membership interests, means a category of membership interests that differs in one (1) or more rights or preferences from another category of membership interests of the LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• CMRS: means commercial mobile radio service under §. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Commercial mobile radio service provider: means any person, corporation, or entity licensed by the federal communications commission to offer CMRS in the state of Tennessee, and includes, but is not limited to, broadband personal communications service, cellular radio telephone service, geographic area SMR services in the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands that offer real-time, two-way voice service that is interconnected with the public switched network, incumbent wide area SMR licensees, or any other cellular or wireless telecommunications service to any service user. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Commission: means the Tennessee human rights commission. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Commissioner: means any person in office as a member of the public service commission, as prescribed by title 65, chapter 1, prior to June 30, 1996. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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.
• Contribution agreement: means a binding agreement between a person and an LLC under which:
  (A) The person has an obligation to make a contribution to the LLC in the future. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Contribution allowance agreement: means an agreement between a person and an LLC, under which:
  (A) The person has the right, but not the obligation, to make a contribution to the LLC in the future. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• County official: means a county clerk, a clerk of a circuit court, a criminal court, or a probate court, a clerk and master of a chancery court, a clerk of a general sessions court where such general sessions court has an independent clerk who serves such court only, a register of deeds, a county trustee, a sheriff, a county road superintendent elected by a county legislative body, by a county road commission or commissioners, or by popular vote, and an assessor of property, any county commissioner elected by popular vote, serving in a county having a county commission form of government. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Court: includes every court and judge having jurisdiction in the case. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Court reporter: A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court and produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.
• Court reporting: means the making of a verbatim record by means of manual shorthand, machine shorthand, closed microphone voice dictation silencer or by electronic recording of any testimony given under oath before or for submission to, any court, referee or court examiner, by any board, commission or other body or in any other proceeding where a verbatim record is required. See Tennessee Code 20-9-602
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: has the meaning set forth in §. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• 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.
• delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and, if authorized in accordance with §. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Directors: means natural persons, designated in the charter or bylaws or elected or appointed by the incorporators, and their successors and natural persons elected or appointed to act as members of the board, irrespective of the names or titles by which such persons are described. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Disability: means , with respect to a person:
  (i) A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one (1) or more of such person's major life activities. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Discriminatory practices: means any direct or indirect act or practice of exclusion, distinction, restriction, segregation, limitation, refusal, denial, or any other act or practice of differentiation or preference in the treatment of a person or persons because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age or national origin. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Dissolution: means that the LLC has incurred an event under §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Dissolution avoidance consent: means the consent to continue the existence and business of the LLC without dissolution, which consent is given as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Distribution: means a direct or indirect transfer of money or other property (except its own membership interests) with or without consideration, or an incurrence or issuance of indebtedness, (whether directly or indirectly, including through a guaranty) by an LLC to or for the benefit of any of its members in respect of membership interests. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Distribution cooperative: means an electric cooperative that has been heretofore incorporated under the former Electric Cooperative Law, formerly compiled in title 65, chapter 25, part 1, or that has been or hereafter is incorporated under the Rural Electric and Community Services Cooperative Act, compiled in title 65, chapter 25, or that has been or is created as an electric cooperative, electric power association or other similar nonprofit organization or association under the laws of another state, and that is also engaged, in whole or in part, in the distribution of electrical power at retail to its members as the ultimate end-users of such electrical power and energy. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• District: means any emergency communications district created pursuant to this part. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Document: means :
  (A) Any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• domestic corporation: means a corporation for profit, which is not a foreign corporation, incorporated under or subject to the Tennessee Business Corporation Act, compiled in chapters 11-27 of this title, as amended. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Employee: includes an officer but not a director. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Energy acquisition corporation: means an entity created and operating pursuant to the authority established in the Energy Acquisitions Corporation Act, compiled in title 7, chapter 39. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• 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 an owner or operator of a business, the state, or a local government. See Tennessee Code 7-86-402
• Entity: includes the following, whether foreign or domestic: LLCs. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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}
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Familial status: means one (1) or more individuals, who have not attained eighteen (18) years of age, being domiciled with:
  (A) A parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or individuals. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Financial institution: means a bank, banking organization, mortgage company, insurance company or other lender to whom application is made for financial assistance for the purchase, lease, acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, repair, maintenance or improvements of real property, or an individual employed by or acting on behalf of any of these. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Financial rights: means a member's rights to:
  (A) Share in profits and losses as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation for profit incorporated under a law other than the laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Governance rights: means a right to vote on one (1) or more matters and all a member's rights as a member in the LLC other than financial rights and the right to assign financial rights. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Governing body: means the board of governors in the case of a board-managed LLC, the members in the case of a member-managed LLC, and the board of directors in the case of a corporation. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Governmental electric system: means a state, municipal, county or other political subdivision or local governmental entity of this state or of any other state that is engaged, in whole or in part, in the distribution of electrical power at retail to its customers as the ultimate end-users of the electrical power and energy, and "governmental electric system" may, at the election of the G&. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• Governor: means a natural person or entity serving on the board of governors of a board-managed LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• Individual: includes the estate of an incompetent or deceased individual. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest: means either or both of the following rights under the organic law of an unincorporated entity:
  (A) The right to receive distributions from the entity either in the ordinary course or upon liquidation. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• IP-enabled services: means services and applications making use of Internet protocol (IP) including, but not limited to, voice over IP and other services and applications provided through wireline, cable, wireless, and satellite facilities, and any other facility that may be provided in the future through platforms that may not be deployable at present, that are capable of connecting users dialing or entering the digits 911 to public safety answering points (PSAPs). See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• Lease-sale: means an agreement whereby the possession and use of assets and properties would be transferred to a lessee-purchaser for a stated or determinable period in time, during or at the end of which the lessee-purchaser would have the right and be obligated, or would have the option, to purchase and acquire, or would without further act acquire fee simple title to the assets and properties for a price expressly stated in the agreement or for a price determinable by a formula contained in the agreement, whether or not any portion of any lease-hold or rental payments would be creditable as a part of the price. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• LLC: means a limited liability company, organized under chapters 201-248 of this title. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Majority vote: means with respect to a vote of the members, if voting on a per capita basis, a majority in number of the members entitled to vote on a specific matter, or if the voting is determined otherwise, a majority of the voting interest (which may be expressed as a percentage) entitled to vote on a specific matter, and with respect to a vote of the governors, a majority in number of the governors entitled to vote on a specific matter. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Manager: means a person elected, appointed, or otherwise designated as a manager by the governing body, and any other person considered elected as a manager pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Member: means a distribution cooperative or governmental electric system, as applicable, having the right through its duly appointed agent or representative to vote for the directors of a G&. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• Member: means a person reflected in the required records of an LLC as the owner of some governance rights of a membership interest of the LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Member-managed: means an LLC organized pursuant to this title that has elected pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Membership: means the rights and obligations a member has pursuant to a corporation's charter, bylaws and chapters 51-68 of this title. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Membership interest: means a member's interest in an LLC consisting of a member's financial rights, a member's right to assign financial rights as provided in §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Municipality: means any county or incorporated city or town in this state with respect to which an authority may be organized. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• National origin: includes the national origin of an ancestor. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• 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.
• Non-wireline service: means any service provided by any person, corporation or entity, other than a service supplier as defined in this part, that connects a user dialing or entering the digits 911 to a PSAP, including, but not limited to, commercial mobile radio service and IP-enabled services. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Operating agreement: means a written agreement described in §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Owners: means members in the case of an LLC, shareholders in the case of a corporation, partners in the case of general or limited partnerships and the equivalent with respect to other entities. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Patron: means a person agreeing to receive or already receiving, or who in the past has received, one (1) or more of the services rendered by a G&. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• Person: includes any natural person, firm, association, corporation, cooperative, membership corporation, distribution cooperative, electric power association, business trust, partnership and federal, state or local governments, or departments, agencies or any other political subdivision thereof, including, without limitation, an energy acquisition corporation. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• Person: includes individual and entity. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Person: includes one (1) or more individuals, governments, governmental agencies, public authorities, labor organizations, corporations, legal representatives, partnerships, associations, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers, mutual companies, joint stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations or other organized groups of persons. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• 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
• 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.
• Port: means and includes any one (1) or more harbors or ports and related facilities, including, but not limited to, land and interests in land, wharves, piers, loading and unloading machinery, scales, transportation equipment, harbor and riverfront or lake front improvements, buildings, storage and transfer facilities, elevators, railroads, switchyards, concentration yards, roads, bridges, communication, electric power, gas, water and all other utility facilities and such other structures, facilities and improvements necessary or convenient to the development of harbors and river ports and for the promotion either directly or indirectly of trade, industry, and commerce. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Principal executive office: means an office, in or out of this state, where the principal office of the chief manager of the LLC or foreign LLC is located. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Principal office: means the office (in or out of this state) so designated in the annual report where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative, and investigatory action. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• PSAP: means a facility that has been designated to receive 911 phone calls and route them to emergency services personnel pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 7-86-103
• Real estate operator: means any individual or combination of individuals, labor unions, joint apprenticeship committees, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers or other legal or commercial entities, or the county or any of its agencies, that is engaged in the business of selling, purchasing, exchanging, renting or leasing real estate, or the improvements thereon, including options, or that derives income, in whole or in part, from the sale, purchase, exchange, rental or lease of real estate. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• real estate salesperson: means an individual, whether licensed or not, who, on behalf of others, for a fee, commission, salary, or other valuable consideration, or who with the intention or expectation of receiving or collecting the same, lists, sells, purchases, exchanges, rents or leases real estate, or the improvements thereon, including options, or who negotiates or attempts to negotiate on behalf of others such activity. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: includes buildings, structures, real estate, lands, tenements, leaseholds, cooperatives, condominiums, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, or any interest in these. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Record date: means the date established under chapter 16 or 17 on which a corporation determines the identity of its shareholders for purposes of chapters 11-27 of this title. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• 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}
• Registered office: means the place in this state designated in the articles as the registered office of the LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Representative: means a governor, manager, employee or other agent of a foreign LLC. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Secretary: means the corporate officer to whom the bylaws or the board of directors has delegated responsibility under §. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Secretary of state: means the person who holds the office of secretary of state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• Series: means a category of membership interests, within a class of membership interests, that have some of the same rights and preferences as other membership interests within the same class, but that differ in one (1) or more rights and preferences from another category of membership interests within that class. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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.
• Sex: means and refers only to the designation of an individual person as male or female as indicated on the individual's birth certificate. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
• Share: means the unit into which the proprietary interests in a corporation are divided. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Subsidiary: means a corporation more than fifty percent (50%) of whose outstanding voting shares are owned by its parent and/or the parent's other wholly-owned subsidiaries. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Telephone system: includes a multiline telephone system and any equivalent system that utilizes IP-enabled services. See Tennessee Code 7-86-402
• Termination: means the end of an LLC's existence as a legal entity and occurs when the articles of termination are filed with the secretary of state under §. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• TVA area: means the area of the Tennessee Valley authority as described in §. See Tennessee Code 48-69-103
• United States: includes district, authority, bureau, commission, department, and any other agency of the United States. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Voting group: means all shares of one (1) or more classes or series that under the charter or chapters 11-27 of this title are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Voting power: means the total number of votes entitled to be cast for the election of directors at the time the determination of voting power is made, excluding a vote which is contingent upon the happening of a condition or event that has not occurred at the time. See Tennessee Code 48-51-201
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• written: means any information in the form of a document. See Tennessee Code 48-11-201
• Written action: means a written document signed by those persons required to take the action described. See Tennessee Code 48-202-101