Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 65 > Chapter 31 - Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act

• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Blasting: means the use of an explosive device for the excavation of earth, rock, or other material or the demolition of a structure. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Board: means the underground utility damage enforcement board, created by §. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Calendar day: means a twenty-four (24) hour period beginning with the date and time that a notification to excavate or demolish is to begin, including Monday through Sunday and all holidays. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• 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
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Damage: includes the substantial weakening of structural or lateral support of an underground utility, penetration or destruction of any protective coating, housing or other protective device of an underground utility, the partial or complete severance of an underground utility and rendering any underground utility inaccessible. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• 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.
• demolition: means any operation by which a structure or mass of material is wrecked, razed, rendered, moved or removed by means of any tools, equipment, or discharge of explosives. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Design locate request: means a communication to the one-call service in which a request for locating existing utility facilities for predesign or advance planning purposes is made. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• Excavator: means any person who engages in activities described in subdivisions (A) and (B) in the definition of "excavate" contained in this section. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Executive committee: means the executive committee created by §. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• 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.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• 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
• Impending emergency: means circumstances potentially dangerous to life, health, property, the environment or the repair or restoration of service, which would likely develop into an emergency, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• 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.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Location: means the proposed area for which digging or excavating is scheduled within three (3) to ten (10) working days, such area not to exceed two thousand feet (2,000') in length unless an excavator and an operator or an operator's designated representative, such as a one-call service, agree to a larger area. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Mechanized equipment: means equipment operated by means of mechanical power including trenchers, bulldozers, power shovels, augers, backhoes, scrapers, drills, cable and pipe plows and other equipment used for plowing-in or pulling-in cable or pipe. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• One-Call Service: means a telephone notification service described in §. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Operator: means any person who owns or operates a utility. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• 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: means any individual. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Proposed area of excavation: means a general surface location which excavators are to furnish to operators of underground utilities or to a one-call service as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Willful noncompliance: means the intentional refusal or failure to perform, or comply with, a duty created or imposed by this chapter or by rules promulgated pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Working day: means every day, except Saturday, Sunday, and national and legal state holidays. See Tennessee Code 65-31-102
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.
• 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