Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 16 > Chapter 57 > Subchapter 3 - Negotiations

• Acquire: shall mean to purchase, to acquire by eminent domain, to hire, to lease, to construct, to reconstruct, or to replace. See
• Administrator: means any person so licensed by the Vermont Standards Board for professional educators, the majority of whose employed time in a school or a school district is devoted to serving as superintendent, assistant superintendent, assistant to the superintendent, supervisor, principal, or assistant principal. See
• Agency fee: means a fee deducted by an employer from the salary or wages of an employee who is not a member of an employee organization, which is paid to the employee organization that is the exclusive bargaining agent for the bargaining unit of the employee. See
• Agricultural custom service vehicle: means a motor truck used on a farm for planting, harvesting, or transporting crops or waste products produced on the farm that is owned by a person providing custom services who is not a farmer as defined in 32 V. See
• 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.
• Annual meeting: when applied to towns shall mean the annual town meeting in March or an adjournment thereof. See
• 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.
• Appraisers: means the appraisers for the unified towns and gores in Essex County, designated in section 1355 of this title. See
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Auction dealer: means a person who is authorized to do business in this State and is engaged in the sale of motor vehicles at public auction subject to the provisions of sections 451, 458, 459, 463, and 466-468 of this title. See
• biennially: shall mean the year in which a regular session of the General Assembly is held. See
• Board of Governors: means the Board of Governors for the unified towns and gores in Essex County, elected in section 1351a of this title. See
• Commissioner: shall mean in this title only the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. See
• Communications plant: shall mean any and all parts of any communications system owned by the municipality, whether using wires, cables, fiber optics, wireless, other technologies, or a combination thereof, and used for the purpose of transporting or storing information, in whatever forms, directions, and media, together with any improvements thereto hereafter constructed or acquired, and all other facilities, equipment, and appurtenances necessary or appropriate to such system. See
• Communications service: shall include ownership, operation, and utilization of a communications plant within or without the corporate limits of the municipality to transport or store information in any form and medium. See
• compensation: means payment in any form except reimbursement for mileage or the normal salary paid to a person otherwise employed by the school. See
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contested hearing: means one of the following:

• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Conviction: means an unvacated final adjudication of guilt, or a final determination that a person has violated or failed to comply with the law in a court of original jurisdiction or an authorized administrative tribunal, an unvacated forfeiture of bail or collateral deposited to secure the person's appearance in court, the payment of a fine or court cost, or violation of a condition of release without bail, regardless of whether or not the penalty is rebated, suspended, or probated. See
• 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.
• Dealer: means a person, partnership, corporation, or other entity engaged in the business of selling or exchanging new or used motor vehicles, snowmobiles, motorboats, or all-terrain vehicles. See
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Domestic: when applied to a corporation, company, association, or copartnership shall mean organized under the laws of this State; "foreign" when so applied, shall mean organized under the laws of another state, government, or country. See
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• engaged in the business: means having sold or exchanged at least 12 cars or motor trucks, or a combination thereof, in the immediately preceding year, or 24 in the two immediately preceding years. See
• 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.
• Farm tractor: means a traveling power plant or a self-propelled device that functions as part of crop production, harvesting, feeding, or livestock management or is used for drawing a farm trailer as defined in subdivision (69) of this section. See
• Farm trailer: means a vehicle or equipment designed and adapted exclusively for tilling, planting, harvesting, management, or for carrying inputs to or outputs from agricultural, horticultural, or livestock-raising operations, or farm equipment, without motive power, designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle, a farm truck, or a farm tractor, and, in any case, not subject to registration if used upon the highway. See
• Farm truck: means a motor truck that, at the option of the owner, may be registered under the provisions of subsection 367(f) of this title or may be unregistered when used in accordance with subsection 370(b) of this title. See
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• gender identity: means an individual's actual or perceived gender identity, or gender-related characteristics intrinsically related to an individual's gender or gender-identity, regardless of the individual's assigned sex at birth. See
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gores: means the unified towns and gores in Essex County, or any one of them. See
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Improve: shall mean to acquire or construct any improvement, whether consisting of real or personal property. See
• Improvement: shall mean any extension, betterment, addition, alteration, reconstruction, and extraordinary repair, equipping, or reequipping of the communications plant of the municipality. See
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• inhabitants: shall mean the population of the political division referred to, as ascertained by the national census last completed before the time when such population is a material fact. See
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jitney: shall include any motor vehicle, not designated for the carrying of merchandise or freight, advertised or regularly used for carrying passengers for hire, but not operating over a fixed route, including motor vehicles operated for hire in connection with a livery business, but shall not include any such vehicle that the owner thereof uses in an emergency for such purpose, nor one that an employer uses to transport his or her employees to and from their work, nor one that is used at least 75 percent of the time in the transportation of schoolchildren or under authority granted to a school board under 16 V. See
• Junior operator: shall include only such persons as are 16 and 17 years of age. See
• 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.
• Justice: when applied to a person, other than a Justice of the Supreme Court, shall mean a justice of the peace for the county for which he or she is elected or appointed. See
• 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}
• Legislative body: means the mayor and board of aldermen of a city, a city council, a town selectboard, the president and trustees of an incorporated village, or the legislative bodies of a group of municipalities. See
• 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.
• Local board: means the entity authorized to conduct a contested hearing. See
• Magistrate: shall mean any Supreme Court Justice, Superior judge, District judge, or Probate judge. See
• Month: means 30 days and "year" means 365 days. See
• Motor bus: shall include any motor vehicle with a seating capacity of more than seven persons, other than a street car, operated upon the public streets and highways along a regular route, and in such operation receiving, discharging, and transporting passengers for hire. See
• Motor truck: means any motor vehicle designed primarily for the transportation of property and shall be construed to include truck tractor-semitrailer and truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer combinations. See
• Motor vehicle: includes all vehicles propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power, except farm tractors, vehicles running only upon stationary rails or tracks, motorized highway building equipment, road making appliances, snowmobiles, tracked vehicles, motor-assisted bicycles, electric bicycles, or electric personal assistive mobility devices. See
• Motor-driven cycle: means any vehicle equipped with two or three wheels, a power source providing up to a maximum of two brake horsepower and having a maximum piston or rotor displacement of 50 cubic centimeters if a combustion engine is used, which will propel the vehicle, unassisted, at a speed not to exceed 30 miles per hour on a level road surface, and that is equipped with a power drive system that functions directly or automatically only, not requiring clutching or shifting by the operator after the drive system is engaged. See
• Motorcycle: means any motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, and includes autocycles but excludes motor-driven cycles, motor-assisted bicycles, electric bicycles, golf carts, track driven vehicles, tractors, and electric personal assistive mobility devices. See
• Motorized highway building equipment: shall include all bulldozers, rollers, scrapers, graders, spreaders, pavers, bituminous mixers, compressors, power shovels, excavators, dumpsters, concrete mixers, bucket loaders, snow loaders, rooters, and scarifiers, except road oilers and bituminous distributors, which contain as an integral part thereof and within the same unit facilities for generating motor power for propelling the same and while being used exclusively for the building, repair, or maintenance of highways, or being transported or moved from job to job in connection with the building, repair, or maintenance of highways; or, for purposes of registration only, if owned and operated by a municipality, while being used exclusively for municipal purposes; however, the town road commissioner, or comparable municipal officer, shall report annually to the legislative body of the municipality that the equipment is in good repair; tractors used exclusively as a power unit in drawing road making appliances or in the transportation of same or of such tractor from job to job in connection with the building, repair, or maintenance of highways. See
• municipalities: as used in this chapter means cities, incorporated villages, special purpose districts, and school districts. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• Municipality: means a city, town, incorporated village, or group of municipalities. See
• New motor vehicle: means a vehicle that is being registered or titled for the first time. See
• Nonresident: shall include any person who does not come under the definition of a resident. See
• Oath: shall include affirmation where by law an affirmation may be substituted. See
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Operator: shall include all persons 18 years of age or over properly licensed to operate motor vehicles. See
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: shall include any person, corporation, co-partnership, or association holding legal title to a motor vehicle or having exclusive right to the use or control thereof for a period of 30 days or more. See
• 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: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Person: includes any natural person, corporation, association, co-partnership, company, firm, or other aggregation of individuals. See
• Personal estate: shall include all property other than real estate. See
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pleasure car: shall include all motor vehicles not otherwise defined in this title. See
• plug-in electric vehicle: includes both a "battery electric vehicle" and a "plug-in hybrid electric vehicle" where:

• Portable electronic device: means a portable electronic or computing device, including a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or laptop computer. See
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Privilege to operate: includes the privilege of a nonresident to operate a motor vehicle within the State and includes the privilege of a resident to obtain a license. See
• Public place: means municipal property, including a municipal park, a recreation area, or a municipal building. See
• Public way: means a right-of-way held by a municipality, including a town highway. See
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate. See
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Resident: as used in this title only, means any person living in the State who intends to make the State his or her principal place of domicile either permanently or for an indefinite number of years. See
• road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
• Road making appliances: shall mean all bulldozers, rollers, scrapers, graders, spreaders, pavers, retreading machines, compressors, power shovels, excavators, rock crushers, concrete mixers, snow loaders, bucket loaders, rooters, portable electric generators, pavement heaters, sweepers, steam boilers, traffic control boards, screening plants, asphalt reclaimers, and scarifiers designed to be and while being drawn by a separate motorized power unit and while being used exclusively for building, repair, or maintenance of roads or highways or while being transported from job to job in connection with the building, repair, or maintenance of roads or highways, except contractor's trailers. See
• said: when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned. See
• School board: means the board of school directors of a school district or its equivalent in any independent elementary or secondary school. See
• School board negotiations council: means , for a supervisory district, its school board, and, for school districts within a supervisory union, the body comprising representatives designated by each school board within the supervisory union and by the supervisory union board to engage in professional negotiations with a teachers' or administrators' organization. See
• School bus: means any motor vehicle used to transport children to or from school or in connection with school activities, except:

• School district: means any public school district or any independent elementary or secondary school within the State that directly or indirectly receives support from public funds. See
• seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. See
• 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.
• sexual orientation: means female or male homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality. See
• Shade tree: means a shade or ornamental tree located in whole or in part within the limits of a public way or public place, provided that the tree:

• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supervisor: means the supervisor for the unified towns and gores in Essex County, appointed in section 1351b of this title. See
• Supervisory union: means an administrative, planning, and educational service unit created by the State Board under section 261 of this title, that consists of two or more school districts; if the context clearly allows, the term also means a supervisory district. See
• Suspension of license: means the withdrawal by formal action of the Commissioner, for a specific period of time and until reinstatement by the Commissioner, of a person's license or privilege to operate a motor vehicle on the public highways. See
• sworn: shall include affirmed. See
• Teacher: means any person licensed employable as a teacher by the Vermont Standards Board for Professional Educators who is not an administrator as defined in this section. See
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Town: shall include city and wards or precincts therein; "selectboard members" and "board of civil authority" shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; "trustees" shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and the laws applicable to the inhabitants and officers of towns shall be applicable to the inhabitants and similar officers of all municipal corporations. See
• town: as used in this chapter may be construed to include a city or an incorporated village. See
• Tractor: shall include a motor vehicle designed or used primarily as a traveling power plant or for drawing other vehicles, and not so constructed as to carry any load other than a part of the weight of the vehicles and load so drawn, excepting, however, motorized highway building equipment. See
• Trailer: is a vehicle without motive power designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle, and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle excepting, however, road making appliances and transportation dollies, and "semi-trailer" is a vehicle without motive power, designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle, and so constructed that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by the towing vehicle, excepting, however, pole dinkeys, transportation dollies, and road making appliances. See
• Trailer coach: shall mean any trailer or semi-trailer designed to be towed by a motor vehicle and designed, equipped, or used for sleeping, eating, or living quarters. See
• 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.
• Transporter: means :

• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Truck tractor: shall include a motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles but so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn. See
• vehicle or motorboat: means a motor vehicle, snowmobile, motorboat, or all-terrain vehicle. See
• Village: shall mean an incorporated village. See
• Wrecker: shall mean a motor truck equipped with a permanently mounted hoisting apparatus, winch, or derrick, designed for moving and towing motor vehicles, with no provision for carrying a load on the body of the truck except motor vehicles, parts and equipment used for the repair of motor vehicles, and equipment used for the operation of a hoisting apparatus, winch, or derrick. See