Daniel Oran - Oran's Dictionary of the Law

488 Time-price doctrine

Time-price doctrine The principle that courts may allow a higher price to be charged for things bought on credit than for the same things paid for in cash. This is a way for a seller to get around state usury (see that word) laws.

Timeshare See interval ownership.

Tippee A person given information about a company by an insider whose duty to the company and the general public forbids giving out such information.

Title 1. The name for a part of a statute. For example, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is known to specialists in the field as “Title Seven.” 2. Formal ownership of property. 3. A document that shows no. 2. 4. For abstract of; chain of; clear; color of; defective (see defect); document of; lucrative; marketable; onerous; paper; perfect; record; root of; torrens, etc., title, see those words. 5. A title search is a search of the land records to see if title is good or restricted; a title guaranty company makes this search, then guarantees the title for the buyer; title standards are criteria set up by state organizations of banks, real estate lawyers, etc., to evaluate whether or not a title is good; and a title state or title theory jurisdiction is a state in which the title to mortgaged property is held by the lender until the debt is paid. See also lien state and hybrid state.

To have and to hold A phrase used in some deeds to make a transfer of land valid. The phrase is no longer necessary.

To wit An unnecessary phrase meaning “that is to say” or “namely.” It can usually be replaced by a colon (:).

Toll 1. A fee to use a road, bridge, etc. 2. To toll a statute of limitations (see that word) is to do something to delay it from taking effect, to “stop the clock from running.”

Tombstone ad A stock (or other securities) or land sales notice that clearly states that it is informational only and not itself an offer to buy or sell. It has a black border that resembles one on a death notice.

Tonnage tax A tax on a ship based on its weight or on its carrying capacity.

Tontine A type of insurance, now illegal, in which many persons pay into a fund and only those living by a certain date split it up.

Torrens title system A system of land ownership registration, used in some states, in which the owner receives a conclusive “certificate of title” to land after a successful hearing. Use of the Torrens system is voluntary and is supplementary to the mere recording of a deed, which provides only evidence of land ownership.

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Tort A civil (as opposed to a criminal) wrong, other than a breach of contract. For an act to be a tort, there must be: a legal duty owed by one person to another, a breach (breaking) of that duty, and harm done as a direct result of the action. Examples of torts are negligence, battery, and libel (see those words).

Tort reform Any attempt to reduce tort litigation by limiting the amount of damages or by limiting court access for certain types of cases.

Tortfeasor A person who commits a tort (see that word). [pronounce: tort-fee-zor]

Tortious Having to do with a tort. [pronounce: tor-shus]

Total Complete for legal purposes. For example, a total disability may not be “total” in the common language sense, but merely be that which stops a person from doing his or her normal work; and total loss by fire need not be a burning to the ground, but merely be a complete commercial loss.

Totalitarianism Absolutism (see that word) in which the government controls most of the small details of each person’s life. This is done through propaganda, an intrusive military and police, etc.

Totten trust A trust created by putting money into a bank account in your name as trustee for another person. You can take it out when you want, but if you do not take it out before you die, it becomes the property of that other person.

Touch and stay A ship’s right, under its insurance policy, to stop and stay at certain ports, but not to carry on any trade there.

Town Describes a community of persons, a geographical area, or a type of local government. “Town” means different things in different states.

Township 1. A division of state land having six miles on each side and varying in importance as a unit of government from state to state. 2. A division of a county, having different meanings and powers in different states.

Tract index A public record containing references to all recorded deeds, mortgages, liens, etc., organized according to numbered lots with map references, so if you know exactly where a particular parcel of land is located, you can easily find references to all the recorded transfers of ownership and many other recorded matters concerning the parcel. Compare with grantor-grantee index.

Trade 1. Buying and selling; commerce. 2. A job or profession. 3. Barter; swap. 4. A trade agreement is an agreement among countries to allow the sale of certain items in those countries (and at certain import tax

490 Trade acceptance

rates); a trade association is a group of similar businesses organized for idea exchange, maintaining standards, and lobbying; trade credit is credit sales made by one business to another (commercial accounts receivable); trade debt is credit purchases by one business from another (commercial accounts payable); a trade discount is a price reduction to certain types of business customers (for example, from a lumber dealer to building contractors); a trade dispute is any labor dispute (excluding such things as the refusal to cross picket lines); and trade usage is common, regular practice or custom within a type of business or trade.

Trade acceptance See acceptance.

Trade dress A product’s total appearance (size, shape, color, etc.) and its packaging and advertising. A court may prohibit a product’s trade dress that is too similar to a more established product’s trade dress.

Trade name The name of a business. It will usually be legally protected in the area where the company operates and for the types of products in which it deals.

Trade secret A process, tool, chemical compound, etc. that is used confidentially by a company and that is not generally known to the public or patented.

Trade usage See usage.

Trademark A distinctive mark, brand name, motto, or symbol used by a company to identify or advertise the products it makes or sells. Trademarks (and service marks) can be federally registered and protected against use by other companies if the marks meet certain criteria. A federally registered mark bears the symbol®.

Traditionary evidence Evidence of what a dead person said long ago. Traffic Regular commerce, trade, or transportation.

Tranche A part or “slice” of a whole; often applied to one set of bonds separated from all the others in a series by maturity date. [pronounce: transh or trahnsh]

Transaction 1. A business deal. 2. An occurrence; something that takes place. A group of facts so interconnected that they can be referred to by one legal name, such as a “crime,” a “contract,” a “wrong,” etc.

Transactional immunity See immunity.

Transcript A copy; especially the official copy of the record of a court proceeding.

Transfer Change or move from person to person (sell, give, sign something over, etc.) or from place to place (court to court, etc.).

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Transfer agent A person (or an institution such as a bank) who keeps track of who owns a company’s stocks and bonds. Also called a registrar. A transfer agent sometimes also arranges dividend and interest payments.

Transfer payments Government payments (such as welfare or Social Security) for which the government gets nothing directly in return.

Transfer tax A name given to different types of taxes in different contexts. For example, the term transfer tax is sometimes used to refer to an estate tax, a gift tax, a tax on the sale of stocks, etc. See also unified transfer tax.

Transferred intent rule 1. In tort law, the principle that if a person intended to hit another but hits a third person instead, he or she legally intended to hit the third person. This “legal fiction” sometimes allows the third person to sue the hitter for an intentional tort. 2. In criminal law, the similar principle that if an unintended illegal act results from the intent to commit a crime, that act is also a crime.

Transgressive trust A trust that violates the rule against perpetuities.

(See perpetuity.)

Transitory action A lawsuit that may be brought in any one of many places.

Transmutation Changing one type of property interest into another, such as separate property into community property.

Transportation Short for the U.S. Department of Transportation, the cabinet department that regulates interstate transportation through such agencies as the Federal Highway Administration. It also supervises the Coast Guard in peacetime. Some state transportation agencies use the same “D.O.T.” initials.

Trauma 1. An injury to the body caused by an external blow. 2. Sudden psychological damage. 3. Severe psychological damage caused by a specific past event.

Travel Act (18 U.S.C. 1952) The 1961 law that makes it a federal crime to travel interstate to commit a crime or to use any interstate or foreign means of transportation, communication, or commerce to commit a crime.

Travel rights The constitutional right to be free of unreasonable restraints on personal travel. These rights range from absolute rights (such as the absence of a passport requirement to travel between states of the U.S.) to relatively more fragile penumbra doctrine rights (such as the restriction on unreasonable state residency requirements for receipt of welfare benefits).

492 Traveler’s check

Traveler’s check A cashier’s check (see that word) bought from a bank to safeguard travel money. It can be cashed only when signed a second time with a matching signature by the purchaser of the traveler’s check.

Traverse An old form of pleading in which facts in the other side’s pleading are denied.

Treason The crime, defined in the U.S. Constitution, committed by a U.S. citizen who helps a foreign government to overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the U.S.

Treasurer The person in charge of keeping track of an organization’s money (taking in, paying out, etc.), but not usually the person who makes the organization’s financial decisions.

Treasure-trove Hidden money or other valuables with no known owner. Depending on state law, it may belong to the finder, to the land owner, to the state, or part to each.

Treasury Short for the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. cabinet department that handles most national financial, monetary, and tax matters. It runs the Internal Revenue Service (which collects many taxes), the Mint (which makes coins), the Secret Service (which investigates counterfeiting of currency and performs certain nonfinancial tasks), etc.

Treasury bill, bond, certificate, or note Documents showing that the U.S. Treasury has borrowed money. A treasury bill comes due in three, six, nine, or twelve months, paying its face amount (which is more than the purchase price) at the end of the set term; a treasury certificate comes due in one year and pays interest by coupon; a treasury note is like a certificate but comes due in two to ten years; and a treasury bond is issued for long-term borrowing.

Treasury stock (or treasury shares) Shares of stock that have been rebought by the corporation that issued them.

Treatise A large, comprehensive book on a legal subject.

Treaty A formal agreement between countries on a major political subject. The treaty clause of the U.S. Constitution requires the approval of two-thirds of the Senate for any treaty made by the president.

Treble damages Damages three times as great as the amount of proven financial harm caused, authorized by statute to strongly discourage certain kinds of wrongful actions in certain types of lawsuits.

Trespass 1. A wrongful entry onto another person’s property. 2. An old term for many types of civil wrongs or torts. For example, the trespass in no. 1 was called trespass quare clausum fregit (see quare); modern contract lawsuits grew out of trespass on the case; and tres-

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pass vi et armis (force and arms) became modern lawsuits for both negligence and battery (see those words).

Trial The process of deciding a case (giving evidence, making arguments, deciding by a judge and jury, etc.). It occurs if the dispute is not resolved by pleadings, pretrial motions, or settlement. A trial usually takes place in open court, and may be followed by a judgment, an appeal, etc.

Trial balance Separate totals of all credit entries and of all debit entries in an account (or of all accounts with a credit balance and all accounts with a debit balance) calculated to compare the two. If they are not equal, there is a bookkeeping error.

Trial brief (or manual or book) See brief no. 4 for brief, manual, and book, and no. 2 for brief only.

Trial list (or calendar) See calendar.

Tribe A Native American nation. Tribal lands (or a reservation) are lands held by a Native American nation as a whole. And a tribal court is a court that has jurisdiction over criminal offenses committed on tribal lands by a member of the nation, and over many types of civil cases between members or between members and nonmembers.

Tribunal Court.

Trier of fact 1. The jury, or the judge if there is no jury. 2. An arbitrator, an administrative law judge, etc.

Trover An old type of lawsuit, now rarely used, in which a piece of property was claimed to be lost by you and then found by the person from whom you want it back. This got around the problem of proving the thing was wrongfully taken because all you had to prove was that it was yours and that the other person had it.

True bill An indictment approved and made by a grand jury.

True lease A lease that under I.R.S. rules qualifies the lessor to claim ownership benefits (such as tax credits and deductions for depreciation) and qualifies the lessee to deduct payments from income. True leases may resemble installment contracts, but they are different.

True person doctrine The principle that a totally blameless person need not try to escape before killing a person who suddenly attacks with deadly force. Compare with flee to the wall doctrine.

True value rule The principle that if corporate stock is not fully paid for in “real money” or its equivalent, stockholders may be liable to creditors of the company for the difference.

Trust 1. A group of companies that has a monopoly (see that word). 2. An arrangement by which one person holds legal title to money or

494 Trust account

property for the benefit of another. For example, a trust is created when a mother signs over stocks to a bank to manage for her daughter with instructions to give the daughter the income each year until she turns thirty and then to give it all to her. In this example, the mother is the settlor or grantor of the trust, the bank is the trustee, and the daughter is the beneficiary. A trust, however, need not be set up explicitly; for example, if a father gives a son some money saying “half of this is for your brother,” this arrangement may be a trust. Also, a trust can be set up in a will; created by formally stating that you yourself hold money in trust for another person; and created several other ways, both intentional and unintentional. 3. There are hundreds of types of trusts. Some of those defined in this dictionary are: accumulation; active; blind; business; charitable; charitable remainder; Clafin; Clifford; common law; community; complete voluntary; complex; constructive; direct; directory; discretionary; dry; equipment; estate; fixed; foreign; foreign situs; generation-skipping; governmental; grantor; honorary; imperfect; indestructible; instrumental; inter vivos; investment; involuntary; limited; living; Massachusetts; mixed; nominal; nominee; passive; perpetual; personal; pourover; real estate investment; resulting; savings bank; secret; short-term; simple; special; spendthrift; sprinkling; tentative; Totten; transgressive; unitrust; vertical; voluntary; and voting. (See those words.) 4. Many other kinds of trusts, such as alimony; annuity; bond; contingent; executory; express; implied; insurance; irrevocable; ministerial; naked; precatory; private; public; reciprocal; shifting; and testamentary are not in the dictionary as trusts, but can be understood by learning trust plus the listed word. 5. Other trust words follow here.

Trust account See trust deposit.

Trust allotment Land given to Native Americans but held in trust for them by the government for a certain time.

Trust certificate A document showing that property is held in trust as security for a debt based on money used to buy the property. See also deed of trust.

Trust company A bank or other organization that manages trusts, acts as executor of wills, and performs other financial functions.

Trust deed A deed of trust.

Trust deposit Money or property put in a bank to be kept separate (often for ethical or legal reasons) or used for a special purpose.

Trust estate 1. The legal title that is held by the trustee of a trust. 2. The legal rights of the beneficiary of a trust. 3. A property held in trust.

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Trust ex delicto (or ex maleficio or invitum) (Latin) “Trust from crime or wrongdoing.” A constructive trust (see that word) that exists because legal title to property was obtained through a crime or other wrongdoing and another person is entitled to the property.

Trust fund 1. Money or property set aside in a trust or set aside for a special purpose. 2. Money or property that should be treated as a trust. For example, the trust fund theory (or doctrine) says that certain funds (such as those improperly used by a corporation’s directors or others) will be considered as held in trust for creditors or others.

Trust indenture 1. A document that spells out the details of a trust. 2. The Trust Indenture Act is a federal law requiring certain investorprotection provisions in documents used to issue some kinds of bonds.

Trust instrument A deed of trust (see that word) or a formal declaration of trust.

Trust officer A person in a trust company who manages trusts. Trust receipt A document by which a lender puts up money to buy

something and the borrower promises to hold the thing in trust for the lender until the debt is paid off. These arrangements are now usually handled by security agreements.

Trust state (or trust theory jurisdiction) A state in which title to mortgaged property is transferred to a trustee to hold until the debt is paid. See also title state and lien state.

Trust territory An area put under one country’s administration by the United Nations.

Trustee 1. A person who holds money or property for the benefit of another person (see trust). 2. A person who has a fiduciary duty to another person; for example, a lawyer or an agent who must act for another in a position of trust. 3. A trustee in bankruptcy is a person appointed by a court to manage a bankrupt person’s property and to decide who gets it; and a trustee de son tort (French) is a person who is held responsible for his or her wrongful or negligent acts that are performed while improperly claiming the right to take on, or while taking on, the duties of a trustee.

Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (17 U.S. 518) The 1819 Supreme Court decision that a state charter given to a school is a contract with a private corporation that is protected by the contract clause of the Constitution. This established protection for business contracts.

Trusty A prisoner whose good behavior has earned a position of trust.

496 Truth-in-Lending Act

Truth-in-Lending Act The Consumer Credit Protection Act.

Try Prosecute; litigate; attempt. To try a case is to argue it in court as a lawyer, decide it as a judge, or participate in the case in any of several other ways.

Turncoat witness A witness who is expected to give helpful testimony, but who testifies for the other side.

Turning state’s evidence See state’s evidence.

Turnkey contract 1. A contract in which a builder agrees to complete a building to a specific point, usually “ready to move in,” and in which the builder assumes all construction risks. 2. A drilling contract in which the driller does all the work up to the point when a well can begin production and in which, for a set fee, the driller assumes all construction risks except the risk of a dry hole.

Turnover (or turnover rate) The rate at which inventory or financial assets are replaced during a time period.

Turnover order A court order that something be given to someone else (property from a defendant to a plaintiff who has won the case, property that is in dispute to the court for safekeeping, a bankrupt’s property to the trustee, etc.). This is a general word for many different orders, writs, etc.

Turntable doctrine See attractive nuisance.

Turpitude Dishonesty or immorality.

Twelfth Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment that requires separate voting by electors for president and vice president.

Twelve mile limit An imaginary line, twelve miles off the coastline of the U.S., that separates international waters from those claimed by the U.S.

Twentieth Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment that moved up the presidential inauguration and the congressional session from March to January, eliminating a “lame duck” legislative session.

Twenty-fifth Amendment The U.S constitutional amendment that set up procedures for appointing a president and vice president in case of death, removal, or resignation.

Twenty-first Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment ending national prohibition (the banning of alcoholic beverages).

Twenty-fourth Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment forbidding a poll tax.

Twenty-second Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment prohibiting a person from being elected U.S. president more than twice and prohibiting a person from being elected president more than once

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if the person has previously served more than two years of a presidential term to which another was elected.

Twenty-seventh Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment prohibiting congressional pay changes within the same House term they are enacted.

Twenty-sixth Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment that made the voting age eighteen.

Twenty-third Amendment The U.S. constitutional amendment that gave Washington, D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections.

Twisting Misrepresenting policies to convince a person to switch insurance companies.

Two dismissal rule The rule (used in federal court and some state courts) that when a plaintiff voluntarily dismisses a lawsuit in two different courts it is a final dismissal with prejudice (see dismissal).

Two issue rule The principle that if a judge made an error in a jury charge on one issue, but there was more than one issue in the trial, and it cannot be proved that the jury based its verdict on that issue, the verdict should be allowed to stand. This rule is not followed in all states.

Two tier method Describes the system in the U.S. of taxing a corporation’s income twice, first as corporate income and second as income of persons who receive dividends (or certain other income from the corporation).

Two witness rule The rule that a person cannot be convicted of perjury (or, in some states, of first degree murder or other crime with a possible death penalty) unless two witnesses testify that the person’s statement was false (or that the person committed the crime).

Tying in Linking the sale of one product or service to the sale of another product or service. Tying in may involve a seller’s refusal to sell a product unless another product is bought with it. If a seller has a monopoly on a product, tying in the sale of another product may be a violation of the antitrust acts, especially if the right to sell a patented product is tied into selling a non-patented product.