Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 36 > Chapter 4 - Divorce and Annulment

• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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.
• Bonds: means bonds or interim certificates issued pending preparation or delivery of definitive bonds of a local government issued pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• 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
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Construction: means building, reconstruction, erection, replacement, extension, repairing, betterment, equipment, development, embellishment, improvement, acquisition by gift, lease, purchase or the exercise of the right of eminent domain, or any one (1) or more or all of the foregoing, including the acquisition of land and of rights in land, and including acquisition of all of the outstanding capital stock of any corporation whose assets consist entirely of one (1) or more public works projects which together constitute a waterworks, sewer system, natural gas system, electric system, or any combination thereof, including, but not limited to, a water, sewer, natural gas and/or electric distribution system, or any combination thereof, serving a local government and assets related to the operation thereof and whose liabilities consist entirely of those related to the ownership and operation thereof. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Enterprise: means any one (1) of or combination of two (2) or more public works projects, undertakings or projects which the local government is or may hereafter be authorized to construct and from which the local government has heretofore derived or may hereafter derive revenues, and such enterprise includes all improvements, betterments, extensions and replacements thereto, and all appurtenances, facilities, lands, rights in land, water rights, franchises and structures in connection therewith or incidental thereto. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• 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 agency: includes the United States, the president of the United States, or any agency, instrumentality or corporation of the United States, which has heretofore been or may hereafter be designated, created or authorized by or pursuant to any act or acts or joint resolutions of the congress of the United States, to make loans or grants, or which may be owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the United States. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Financial newspaper: means a financial newspaper, financial journal or other financial publication. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the legislative body of any local government of this state or any other authority charged with the governing of the affairs of any local government in this state. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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}
• 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.
• Law: means any act or statute, general, special or local, of this state, including, but not limited to, any local government charter. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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}
• 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.
• Local government: means any county, municipality or metropolitan government in this state. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Local government instrumentality: means any authority created by law on behalf of a county, metropolitan government, municipality or any combination thereof. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Municipality: means any incorporated city or any incorporated town of this state. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Notes: means notes or interim certificates issued pending preparation or delivery of definitive notes of a local government issued pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• Obligations: means bonds, notes and any other evidence of indebtedness lawfully issued or assumed by a local government. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Original bill: A bill which is drafted by a committee. It is introduced by the committee or subcommittee chairman after the committee votes to report it.
• Period: as used in this part and parts 5-8 of this chapter, includes in each instance any number of portions of time not exceeding in the aggregate the length of time included in such period. See Tennessee Code 9-21-405
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Public works project: includes any one (1) or any combination of the following: abattoirs, acquisitions of land for the purpose of providing or preserving open land, airports, alleys, ambulances, auditoriums, bridges, city and town halls, local government stables or garages, community houses, corrective, detention and penal facilities, including, but not limited to, jails, workhouses and reformatories, courthouses, culverts, curbs, dispensaries, drainage systems, including storm water sewers and drains, electric plants and systems, expositions, facilities for the handicapped, including physically and mentally handicapped, facilities for the indigent, fairgrounds and fairground facilities, fire department equipment and buildings, fire alarm systems, flood control, garbage collection and disposal systems, gas and natural gas systems and storage facilities, heat plants and systems, harbor and riverfront improvements, health centers and clinics, including medical and mental health centers and clinics, highways, major roads, highway and street equipment, hospitals, hotels and supporting or incidental facilities built by local governments which are built adjacent to and as a supporting facility of civic or convention centers located in municipalities which have created a central business improvement district under the Central Business Improvement District Act of 1971, compiled in title 7, chapter 84, improvements made pursuant to a plan of improvement for a central business improvement district created pursuant to the Central Business Improvement District Act of 1971, law enforcement and emergency services equipment, levees, libraries, markets, memorials, museums, nursing homes, parks, parking facilities, parkways, playgrounds, plazas, port facilities, docks and dock facilities, including any terminal storage and transportation facilities incident thereto, public art, public buildings, preserves, railroads, including the extension of railroads, and railway beltlines and switches, reclamation of land, recreation centers and facilities, reservoirs, rights-of-way, river and navigation improvements, roads, sanitariums, schools, transportation equipment for schools, sewers, sewage and waste water systems, including, but not limited to, collection, drainage, treatment and disposal systems, ship canals, sidewalks, stadiums, streets, swimming pools, thermal transfer generating plants and/or distribution systems, tunnels, viaducts, voting machines, water treatment distribution and storage systems, wharves and zoos. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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}
• Revenues: means all fees, rents, tolls, rates, rentals, interest earnings, or other charges received or receivable by the local government from any public works project or enterprise then existing or thereafter to be constructed, including any revenues derived or to be derived by a local government from a lease, agreement or contract with any other local government, local government instrumentality, the state, or a state or federal agency for the use of or in connection with a public works project or enterprise, or all other charges to be levied and collected in connection with and all other income and receipts of whatever kind or character derived by the local government from the operation of any public works project or enterprise or arising from any public works project or enterprise. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• 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: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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
• 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.
• Taxable property: means all property subject to ad valorem taxation within the local government, or any portion of the local government, if applicable. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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