Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 29 > Chapter 30 > Part 1 - Action to Recover Personal Property

• 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.
• 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.
• Changeable message sign: means an outdoor advertising device that displays a series of messages at intervals by means of digital display or mechanical rotating panels. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-5-103
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of transportation or the commissioner's designee. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conforming: means an outdoor advertising device that was permitted under and conforms to the zoning, size, lighting, and spacing criteria established in accordance with either the current agreement entered into between the commissioner and the secretary of transportation of the United States on or about October 18, 1984, or the original agreement entered into on or about November 11, 1971, as authorized in §. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of transportation. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Destroyed: means , with respect to a nonconforming outdoor advertising device, that, in the case of wooden sign structures, sixty percent (60%) or more of the upright supports of a sign structure are physically damaged such that normal repair practices would call for replacement of the broken supports or, in the case of metal sign structures, replacement of at least thirty percent (30%) of the length above ground of each broken, bent, or twisted support. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Digital display: means a type of changeable message sign that displays a series of messages at intervals through the electronic coding of lights or light emitting diodes or any other means that does not use or require mechanical rotating panels. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Erect: means to construct, build, raise, assemble, place, affix, attach, create, paint, draw, or in any other way bring into being or establish, but does not apply to changes of copy treatment on an existing outdoor advertising device. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Interstate system: means that portion of the national system of interstate and defense highways, located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated, by the commissioner, and approved by the secretary of transportation of the United States, pursuant to title 23 of the United States Code. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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.
• 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.
• Nonconforming: means an outdoor advertising device that does not conform to the zoning, size, lighting, or spacing criteria established by and in accordance with either the current agreement entered into between the commissioner and the secretary of transportation of the United States, or in accordance with the original agreement entered into on or about November 11, 1971, as authorized in §. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Person: means and includes an individual, a partnership, an association, a corporation, or other entity. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Primary system: means that portion of connected main highways, located within this state, as officially designated, or as may hereafter be designated by the commissioner, and approved by the secretary of transportation of the United States, pursuant to title 23 of the United States Code, including highways designated as part of the national highway system and highways formerly designated as part of the federal-aid primary system. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• 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.
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Sign: means an outdoor sign, light, display, device, figure, painting, drawing, message, placard, poster, billboard, or other thing which is designed, intended, or used to advertise or inform any part of the advertising or informative contents of which is visible from any place on the main traveled way of an interstate system or primary system. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• 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
• 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
• Traveled way: means the portion of a roadway for the movement of vehicles, exclusive of shoulders. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• 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
• Visible: means capable of being seen, whether or not readable, without visual aid by a person of normal visual acuity. See Tennessee Code 54-21-102
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• 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