Legal Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

-C-

CRPS: abbreviation for chronic regional pain syndrome.

Cafeteria plan: A type of employment benefits plan in which the employee selects benefits from a "menu," up to a specified dollar amount.

Capital: The basic assets of a business (particularly corporations or partnerships) or of an individual, including actual funds, equipment and property; distinguished from stock in trade, inventory, maintenance, advertising and payroll.

Capital account: The record which lists all basic assets of a business, not including inventory or the alleged value of good will.

Capital assets: Equipment, property, and funds owned by a business.

Capital expenditure: Payment by a business for basic assets such as property, fixtures, or machinery, but not for day-to-day operations such as payroll, inventory, maintenance and advertising.

Carrier: In general, any person or business which transports property or people by any means of conveyance (truck, auto, taxi, bus, airplane, railroad, ship), almost always for a charge.

Carrying for hire: The act of transporting goods, or people, for a fee. It is important to determine if the carrier has liability for safe delivery or is subject to regulation.

Carrying on business: Pursuing a particular occupation on a continuous and substantial basis. There need not be a physical or visible business "entity" as such.

Cash collateral: Various kinds of cash assets such as, money, securities, documents of title, and proceeds, products, offspring, rents or profits of property, upon which a creditor has a lien or other secured interest.

Casualty: A loss of property due to fire, storm shipwreck or other casualty, which is allowable as a deduction in computing taxable income.

Cause of action: The plaintiff's legal claim against the defendant. There is often more than one cause of action in a lawsuit.

C-Corporation: Any corporation that has not elected S Corporation status.

Certificate of authority: A document issued by the secretary or state or equivalent department that authorizes a foreign corporation to operate in a state other than its state of incorporation.

Certificate of good standing: A document issued by the secretary or state or equivalent department that certifies that a corporation in validly existing and in compliance with all periodic and taxation requirements.

Chain of Title: The chronological list of recorded documents affecting title to a specific parcel of real property.

Chapter 7: A liquidation bankruptcy for an individual, husband and wife, partnership or corporation; typically, nonexempt property is liquidated (sold) and the proceeds paid out to creditors on a pro-rata bases, and the debtor is discharged of liability for the debts. Certain categories of debtors are not entitled to a discharge, and certain categories of property are exempt (i.e., can not be taken from the debtor).

Chapter 11: A financial reorganization of a business.

Chapter 13: An adjustment of debts of an individual.

Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome: severe pain condition related to nerve injury

Civil law: That part of the law which governs relationships between people where there is no criminal activity involved.

Claim: Right to payment, whether or not such right is reduced to judgment, liquidated, unliquidated, fixed, contingent, matured, un-matured, disputed, undisputed, legal, equitable, secured, or unsecured; or a right to an equitable remedy for breach of performance if such breach gives rise to a right to payment, whether or not such right to an equitable remedy is reduced to judgment, fixed, contingent, matured, un-matured, disputed, undisputed, secured, or unsecured.

Claims agent: A claims agent is a person appointed to manage the filing and retention of proofs of claim.

Class of creditors: A group of creditors entitled to similar treatment in a bankruptcy case

Clear Title: A title that is free from any encumbrance, obstruction or limitation that would "cloud the title".

Close corporation: A corporation owned by a small number of individuals. Corporations must elect to be close corporations by inserting a statement in their articles of incorporation. State laws typically permit close corporations to be operated more informally than non-close corporations

Closing: Closing of escrow; the final act of a transaction wherein papers are signed, monies are exchanged and title is transferred.

Closing Costs: The expenses incurred in a real estate transaction including costs of title examination, title insurance, attorney's fees, lender's service charges, documentary transfer tax, etc.

Cloud of Title: An outstanding claim of title that has yet to be proven invalid.

Co-Debtor stay: In Chapter 13 cases, an automatic stay which restrains creditor actions against someone who is co-liable with the debtor on a consumer debt, but who has not filed bankruptcy.

Co-Defendant: A defendant joined together with one or more other defendants in the same case.

Collateral: Property pledged to secure payment of a debt

Collective bargaining agreement: An employment agreement entered into by an employee with a group of employees to negotiate with the employer over pay, benefits etc.

Commercial law: All the laws which apply to the rights, relations and conduct of persons and businesses engaged in commerce, merchandising, trade and sales. In recent years this body of law has been codified in the Uniform Commercial Code.

Commission: A fee paid based on a percentage of the sale made by an employee or agent, as distinguished from regular payments of wages or salary.

Commitment: A title insurer's contractual obligation to insure title to real property.

Common area: An area inside a condominium or planned community that set aside for use by all residents or owners.  Also called common open space or common elements

Common elements:   Any real estate within a planned community owned or leased by the association, other than a lot.  In a condominium, the common elements include all portions of the condominium other than the units.

Common expenses:  Expenditures made by or financial liabilities of the association, together with any allocations to reserves

Common expense liability:  The liability for common expenses allocated to each lot or unit by the declaration or otherwise by law.

Common law: Body of law that has grown based on the decisions of courts long ago. It originated in England and has since passed to the United States. It is always changing to reflect the current needs society.

Common stock: A corporation's primary class of stock. Common stock holders typically have voting rights.

Company: Any formal business entity for profit, which may be a corporation, a partnership, association or individual proprietorship.

Comparable worth: A legal concept which requires that people who work similar jobs of similar worth to the employer must be paid the same amount regardless of gender.

Comparables: Properties used as comparisons to determine the value of a certain property.

Comparative market analysis: An estimate of the value of a property based on an analysis of sales of properties with similar characteristics.

Comparative negligence: A defense to negligence used when it is believed that the plaintiff's negligence contributed to his or her injuries. Based on the amount of negligence by each party, the amount of damages is adjusted accordingly.

Complaint: A pretrial document or pleading filed in a court by one party against another that states claims or grievances called "causes of action" or “claims for relief.”

Condominium: Fee ownership of an individual unit (within the confines of the perimeter walls) and an individual percentage interest in all the common elements grounds designated for the use and enjoyment of all the unit owners.

Confirmation: A court's approval of a debtor's proposed plan in one of the reorganization chapters.

Consensual lien: A lien granted by agreement between the lien holder and the debtor, such as a mortgage or a UCC security interest.

Consignee: A person or business holding another's goods for sale or for delivery to a designated agent.

Consignment: The act of consigning goods to one who will sell them for the owner or transport them for the owner.

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act ("COBRA"): A federal law that requires employers to allow employees to continue their health insurance coverage after termination, in the same insurance group, at the group rate, and providing the same benefits.

Construction loan: A short-term loan for home or building construction. The lender disburses the funds in stages.

Construction-to-permanent loan: A construction loan that is converted to a longer-term traditional mortgage after construction has been completed.

Constructive discharge: A type of termination of the employment relationship in which the employee quits, but the employer is liable as if a wrongful termination occurred, because the employee was forced to resign due to intolerable working conditions.

Constructive trust: An equitable remedy under which a person who has acquired property by a wrongful act is deemed to hold the property in trust for the victim of the wrong.

Consumer debt: Debt incurred by an individual primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose.

Contested matter: A dispute in a bankruptcy proceeding that may be adjudicated by motion in the bankruptcy court.

Contingency: An item in a contract dependent on a specific condition for its fulfillment.

Contingency fee agreement: An agreement between an attorney and their client, which allows the attorney to be paid only if the client prevails in a lawsuit and collects monetary damages. The lawyer then receives a percentage of the damages received.

Contributory negligence: A defense to negligence, which points out that the plaintiff's negligence contributed to his or her injuries. Contributory negligence is an absolute bar to the plaintiff's recovery against the defendant.

Conversion; conversion rights: Rights allowing the holder of shares of stock or other financial instrument to convert to other shares of stock.

Convertible adjustable-rate mortgage: A mortgage which starts as an adjustable rate loan, but allows the borrower to convert the loan to a fixed-rate mortgage during a specified period of time.

Convertible instrument: Financial instruments such as bonds or notes that can be converted into shares of stock. Shares of stock may also be convertible into shares of another class.

Conveyance: The transfer of title of property.

Conveyance tax: A tax imposed on the transfer of real property.

Corporation: An organization formed with state governmental approval to act as an artificial person to carry on business (or other activities), which can sue or be sued, and (unless it is non-profit) can issue shares of stock to raise funds.

Cooperative:  Real estate owned by a corporation, trust, trustee, partnership, or an unincorporated association, where the governing instruments of that organization provide that each of the organization's members, partners, stockholders, or beneficiaries is entitled to exclusive occupancy of a designated portion of that real estate.

Cooperative consortium: A group of separate businesses or business people joining together and cooperating to complete a project, work together to perform a contract or conduct an ongoing business.

Core proceeding: A proceeding in a bankruptcy case that involves the adjudication of rights created by the Code, or concerns issues that could only arise in a bankruptcy case.

Corporate secretary: A corporate officer, elected by the directors, usually charged with record-keeping responsibilities.

Co-sign: To sign a promissory note or other obligation in order to share liability for the obligation.

Cost-plus contract: A construction contract that determines the builder's profit based on a percentage of the cost of labor and materials.

Counterclaim: A demand by the defendant against the plaintiff asserting an independent cause of action in the same lawsuit.

Counter-offer: A new offer as to price, terms and/or conditions made in reply to and superseding a prior offer.

Covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs): Rules and regulations for a condominium or planned community development, such as those pertaining to acceptable landscaping or improvements that can be made to individual units or lots.

Credit history: A record of an individual's current and past debt payments.

Credit rating: The degree of creditworthiness assigned to a person based on credit history and financial status.

Credit Report: Lender run comprehensive buyer credit report.

Creditor: An entity that has a claim against the debtor.

Cross examination: Questioning the witness who has been presented by the opposition at trail or a deposition.

Cul-de-sac: A street or alley that is closed at one end.

Cumulative injury: An injury that was caused by repeated events at work.

Cumulative voting: A system of voting shares of stock used in some states. Cumulative voting gives minority shareholders additional voting power by allowing them to "cumulate" their votes for a single director.

Curable defect: A deficiency in a property that is easy or inexpensive to fix, such as chipping paint.

Custodian: May mean any of the following:

1. a receiver or trustee of any of the property of the debtor, appointed in a case or proceeding not under thistitle; or
2. an assignee under a general assignment for the benefit of the debtor's creditors; or
3. a trustee, receiver, or agent that is appointed or authorized to take charge of property of the debtor for the purpose of enforcing a lien against such property.