Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 8.1A > Part 1 - General Provisions

• Agency: means any authority, instrumentality, officer, board or other unit of the state government empowered by the basic laws to make regulations or decide cases. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• Agency action: means either an agency's regulation or case decision or both, any violation, compliance, or noncompliance with which could be a basis for the imposition of injunctive orders, penal or civil sanctions of any kind, or the grant or denial of relief or of a license, right, or benefit by any agency or court. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• Agreement: means the agreement or agreements between the Commonwealth, as seller of the Tobacco Assets, and the Corporation, as purchaser of the Tobacco Assets. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Aircraft: means any contrivance now known, or hereafter invented, used, or designed for navigation of or flight in the air, including a balloon or other contrivance designed for maneuvering in airspace at an altitude greater than 24 inches above ground or water level, except that any contrivance now or hereafter invented of fixed or flexible wing design, operating without the assistance of any motor, engine, or other mechanical propulsive device, which is designed to utilize the feet and legs of the operator or operators as the sole means of initiating and sustaining forward motion during the launch and of providing the point of contact with the ground upon landing and commonly called a "hang glider" shall not be included within this definition. See Virginia Code 5.1-1
• Airport: means any area of land or water which is used, or intended for public use, for the landing and takeoff of aircraft, and any appurtenant areas that are used, or intended for use, for airport buildings or other airport facilities or rights-of-way, easements and together with all airport buildings and facilities located thereon. See Virginia Code 5.1-1
• Airport hazard: means any structure, object or natural growth, or use of land that obstructs the airspace required for the flight of aircraft in landing or taking off at an airport or is otherwise hazardous to such landing or taking off of aircraft. See Virginia Code 5.1-1
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• 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}
• Board: means the Virginia Aviation Board. See Virginia Code 5.1-1
• Board: means the Virginia Waste Management Board. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Commission: means the Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission created pursuant to § 3. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Commission Allocation: means 50 percent of the annual amount received under the Master Settlement Agreement by the Commonwealth, or that would have been received but for a sale of such allocation pursuant to an agreement, between the commencing and ending dates specified in the agreement. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: means the Tobacco Settlement Financing Corporation as created under state law. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Aviation. See Virginia Code 5.1-1
• Department: means the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. See Virginia Code 3.2-100
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Disclosure statement: means a sworn statement or affirmation, in such form as may be required by the Director, which includes:

  1. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400

• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Endowment: means the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Endowment established pursuant to § 3. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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}
• farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
• Federal acts: means any act of Congress providing for waste management and regulations promulgated thereunder. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Fiduciary: shall include any one or more of the following:

  a. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fund: means the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Fund established pursuant to § 3. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• 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.
• 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.
• Hazardous substance: means a substance listed under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, P. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Hazardous waste: means a solid waste or combination of solid waste that because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may:

  1. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400

• Hearing: means agency processes other than those informational or factual inquiries of an informal nature provided in §§ 2. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• 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}
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• 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}
• Master Settlement Agreement: means the settlement agreement and related documents between the Commonwealth and leading United States tobacco product manufacturers dated November 23, 1998, and including the Consent Decree and Final Judgment entered in the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond on February 23, 1999, Chancery Number HJ-2241-4. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Nonlegislative citizen member: means any natural person who is not a member of the General Assembly of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-225
• Notary: means notary public. See Virginia Code 1-226
• nuclear waste: includes :

  1. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400

• 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.
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Period of sale: means the time during which a purchaser under an agreement is entitled to receive the Commission Allocation. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, partnership, association, governmental body, municipal corporation, or any other legal entity. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Person under a disability: shall include :

  a. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• 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.
• 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.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Public assistance and social services programs: means those programs specified in § 63. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• 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
• Registrar: means the Registrar of Regulations employed as provided in § 2. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• regulation: means any statement of general application, having the force of law, affecting the rights or conduct of any person, adopted by an agency in accordance with the authority conferred on it by applicable basic laws. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• Resource conservation: means reduction of the amounts of solid waste that are generated, reduction of overall resource consumption, and utilization of recovered resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Resource recovery: means the recovery of material or energy from solid waste. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• 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.
• Strategic Plan: means the strategic plan required pursuant to subsection C of § 3. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• Subordinate: means (i) one or more but less than a quorum of the members of a board constituting an agency, (ii) one or more of its staff members or employees, or (iii) any other person or persons designated by the agency to act in its behalf. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Tobacco Assets: means all right, title, and interest in and to the portion of the Commission Allocation that may be sold to the Corporation. See Virginia Code 3.2-3100
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• 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 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Virginia Register of Regulations: means the publication issued under the provisions of Article 6 (§ 2. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• Virginia Regulatory Town Hall: means the website operated by the Department of Planning and Budget, which has online public comment forums and displays information about regulatory actions under consideration in the Commonwealth and sends this information to registered public users. See Virginia Code 2.2-4001
• Waste: means any solid, hazardous, or radioactive waste as defined in this section. See Virginia Code 10.1-1400
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.