Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 15.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 26 - Public Finance Act

• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Articles of incorporation: means all documents constituting, at any particular time, the charter of a corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Board: means the Board of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-131
• Board: means the Board of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-141
• Board: means the Board of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-152
• Board of directors: means the group of persons vested with the management of the business of the corporation irrespective of the name by which such group is designated, and "director" means a member of the board of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• 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.
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission of Virginia. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consolidated Plan: means a document setting forth various housing and community development goals, objectives, and strategies to be followed by the Commonwealth in addressing housing and community development conditions in the Commonwealth and serving as the strategic plan for the programs established by the Department and, to the extent and in the manner determined in accordance with § 36-55. See Virginia Code 36-131
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• delivery: means any method of delivery used in conventional commercial practice, including delivery by hand, mail, commercial delivery, and, if authorized in accordance with § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Department: means the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• Department: means the Department of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-131
• Department: means the Department of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-141
• Department: means the Department of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-152
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Derelict structures: means residential, commercial or industrial structures which are no longer being used for a place of habitation, business or industry and which are in such poor condition as to cause a blight upon the neighborhood in which any such structure is located. See Virginia Code 36-152
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-131
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Disinterested director: means a director who, at the time action is to be taken under § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Document: means (i) any tangible medium on which information is inscribed, and includes any writing or written instrument, or (ii) an electronic record. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• domestic corporation: means a corporation not authorized by law to issue shares, irrespective of the nature of the business to be transacted, organized under this chapter or existing pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth on January 1, 1986, or that, by virtue of articles of incorporation, amendment, or merger, has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth, even though also being a corporation organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth or that has become a domestic corporation of the Commonwealth pursuant to Article 11. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Domesticated corporation: means the domesticating corporation as it continues in existence after a domestication. See Virginia Code 13.1-898.1:1
• Domesticating corporation: means the domestic corporation that approves a plan of domestication pursuant to § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-898.1:1
• Domestication: means a transaction pursuant to this article, including domestication of a foreign corporation as a domestic corporation or domestication of a domestic corporation in another jurisdiction, where the other jurisdiction authorizes such a transaction even if by another name. See Virginia Code 13.1-898.1:1
• Eligible entity: means a domestic or foreign unincorporated entity or a domestic or foreign stock corporation. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Eligible interests: means interests or shares. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Employee: includes , unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, an officer but not a director. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Entity: includes any domestic or foreign corporation; any domestic or foreign stock corporation; any domestic or foreign unincorporated entity; any estate or trust; and any state, the United States, and any foreign government. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• 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.
• Flood plain management regulations: means zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, the building code, health regulations, special purpose ordinances such as flood plain ordinances, grading ordinances or erosion control ordinances, and other rules, regulations and ordinances which may affect flood plain uses. See Virginia Code 10.1-600
• flood-prone areas: means those areas adjoining a river, stream, water course, ocean, bay or lake which are likely to be covered by floodwaters. See Virginia Code 10.1-600
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation not authorized by law to issue shares, organized under laws other than the laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Fund: means the Virginia Housing Trust Fund created by this chapter. See Virginia Code 36-141
• Fund: means the Virginia Removal or Rehabilitation of Derelict Structures Fund created by this chapter. See Virginia Code 36-152
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• 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: includes both or all of them. See Virginia Code 15.2-2602
• 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.
• HDA: means the Virginia Housing Development Authority created in Chapter 1. See Virginia Code 36-141
• Housing sponsor: means individuals, joint ventures, partnerships, limited partnerships, public bodies, trusts, firms, associations, or other legal entities or any combination thereof, corporations, cooperatives and condominiums, approved by the Department of Housing and Community Development as qualified either to own, construct, acquire, rehabilitate, operate, manage or maintain a housing development, whether nonprofit or organized for limited profit subject to the regulatory powers of the Department of Housing and Community Development and other terms and conditions set forth in this chapter. See Virginia Code 36-141
• Hundred year flood: means a flood of that level which on the average will have a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year at designated locations. See Virginia Code 10.1-600
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• 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}
• Individual: means a natural person. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• 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 a foreign or domestic unincorporated entity:

  1. See Virginia Code 13.1-803

• 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}
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• 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.
• Jurisdiction of formation: means the state or country the law of which includes the organic law governing a domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• 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.
• Locality: means a county, city, or town. See Virginia Code 10.1-600
• locality: means any county, city or town in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 36-152
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Member: means one having a membership interest in a corporation in accordance with the provisions of its articles of incorporation or bylaws. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Membership interest: means the interest of a member in a domestic or foreign corporation, including voting and all other rights associated with membership. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Merger: means a business combination pursuant to § 13. See Virginia Code 13.1-893.1
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• National flood insurance program: means the program established by the United States Congress under provisions of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as amended, and as expanded in the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, designed to provide flood insurance at rates made affordable through federal subsidy. See Virginia Code 10.1-600
• 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.
• 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.
• Organic document: means the document, if any, that is filed of public record to create an unincorporated entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Organic law: means the statute governing the internal affairs of a domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Party to a merger: means any domestic or foreign corporation or eligible entity that will merge under a plan of merger. See Virginia Code 13.1-893.1
• Person: includes an individual and an entity. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• 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.
• 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 office: means the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located, or, if there are no such offices, the office, in or out of the Commonwealth, so designated by the board of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Proceeding: includes civil suit and criminal, administrative and investigatory action conducted by a governmental agency. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Project: means any public improvement, property or undertaking for which the locality is authorized by law to appropriate money, except for current expenses, and specific undertakings from which the locality may derive revenues (sometimes called "revenue-producing undertakings") including, without limitation, water, sewer, sewage disposal, and garbage and refuse collection and disposal systems and facilities as defined in § 15. See Virginia Code 15.2-2602
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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}
• Regular flood insurance program: means a program of insurance under the national flood insurance program, for which the Federal Insurance Administrator has issued a flood insurance rate map and applicable actuarial rates, and under which new construction will not be eligible for flood insurance except at the applicable actuarial rates. See Virginia Code 10.1-600
• 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.
• Residential housing: means a specific work or improvement within this Commonwealth, whether multi-family residential housing or single-family residential housing undertaken primarily to provide dwelling accommodations, including the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, preservation or improvement of land, buildings and improvements thereto, for residential housing, and such other nonhousing facilities as may be incidental, related, or appurtenant thereto. See Virginia Code 36-141
• 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.
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• 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.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• Transact business: includes the conduct of affairs by any corporation that is not organized for profit. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes any district, authority, bureau, commission, department, or any other agency of the United States. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Voter: means a qualified voter as defined in § 24. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Voting group: means all members of one or more classes that under the articles of incorporation or this chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of members. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• Voting power: means the current power to vote in the election of directors. See Virginia Code 13.1-803
• written: means any information in the form of a document. See Virginia Code 13.1-803