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Tender

An offer to transfer possession of something to someone else (e.g., tender of payment of rent or return to your neighbor of a borrowed set of golf clubs). One is said to have tendered when the offer is made with the present ability and intent to complete the transfer.

Take a look at a dollar bill (or any other denomination) and you’ll see written thereon, "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private," meaning you can tender the bill to pay any private or public debt, and the party to whom it is tendered cannot refuse receiving payment thereby (at least in the U.S.).

The interesting thing about tender is that it need not be accepted! Whether the tender is accepted or not, tender is still made if the offer to transfer has been extended in a reasonable manner indicating the present ability and willingness to complete the transfer. One may tender payment of rent (return of a borrowed set of golf clubs, for example) and the other party refuse to accept, in which case tender has been made, regardless of acceptance, and our courts will recognize the offer and adjudge the respective rights of the parties accordingly.

Testamentary

Of or pertaining to wills or other instruments intended to be operative only upon the death of the person executing them.

Testamentary Capacity

The ability to understand the nature and extent of what one owns at the time of making a will and also to at least understand who the rest of the world might consider to be those persons naturally entitled to receive the benefit that will be conferred by the will at death (whether or not those persons are named in the will to receive a bounty from the testator or testatrix as beneficiaries) One may have testamentary capacity and be delusional to the point of believing their are pixies playing trombones in the trees, so long as the person knows generally what he or she possesses and knows who the rest of the world would normally expect to receive a benefit from the will when the person dies. In most states, persons under guardianship lack testamentary capacity as a matter of law.

Testator

The term used to refer to a man who executes a will.

Testatrix

The term used to refer to a woman (or girl) who executes a will.

Testify

To give testimony.

Testimony

Any statement made before the court (including testimony taken at a deposition). In most cases this word refers to sworn verbal statements made by witnesses appearing in the courtroom to give evidence, however technically any statement made in a proceeding before the court is testimony. Lawyers, for example, may attempt to give testimony while they interrogate a witness. Leading the witness is one of the common ways this is done, and it is acceptable practice. Sometimes, however, a lawyer will speak to the jury, telling them what happened on such and such a day when the lawyer was nowhere around. This kind of testimony is not acceptable and can, in eggregious cases (i.e., extreme) be cause for the court’s declaring a mistrial. Testimony should only be considered reliable when given by a person who is first sworn or affirmed and has first-hand knowledge of the facts alleged.

Theft

Intentionally obtaining possession of property that belongs to someone else (even if only temporarily) is theft. Of course taking any kind of property (money, car, book, or even a pencil) with intent never to return it, is also theft. It’s theft, whether or not you intend to "give it back". Taking your friend’s car for a joy ride (even if you intend only a single trip round the block) is theft. Borrowing money from mom’s purse without permission (even though you intend to pay her back) is theft. It’s a crime and also a civil wrong for which you can be sued on a cause of action called civil theft. Not only can you go to prison, but you can be required to pay the person back and, in some civil courts, theft victims are awarded judgment for the value of the thing stolen plus three-times its value as a penalty together with all their attorney&rss fees and costs. Finally, the fact that you offer to pay a person back or are required to pay them back together with treble damages, you can still go to jail. Restitution is no defense.

Title

The right to property, real property or personal property. Title is also the name of certain documents (e.g., automobile or boat title) that grant the right of ownership to property.

Tort

A civil wrong, either negligent or intentional, that results in damages to another. Torts arise from the breach of a duty that does not derive from contract obligations. Examples are fraud, deceit, conversion, breach of trust.

Tortious Interference

Malicious, intentional influence of the customers or employees of another causing loss of business. The complete term is "tortious interference with an advantageous business relationship". See tort.

Tribunal

Today this is just another word for the court, i.e., the judge or judges on the bench, regardless of the number of judges. Nearly all lower courts are presided over by only one judge or magistrate. In many state appellate courts decisions are made by a panel of three judges. Exceptional cases may be decided by five appellate court judges. The United States Supreme Court often sits as a panel of nine justices. The term tribunal is commonly applied regardless of the number presiding.

The term derives from days of long ago when capital and other highly critical cases were decided by three judges, instead of only one, to offset the risk of human bias and promote justice.

Trier of Fact

The trier of fact in a civil case may be a jury, a judge, or a panel of judges. In a jury trial, the panel of jurors is given the responsibility to rule as to which side should be believed in regard to the facts presented ... however, the jury never is relied upon to decide the application of law, which is always left to the judge or a panel of judges.

In a non-jury trial (e.g., probate and guardianship proceedings in states like Florida or bankruptcy proceedings in federal court) the judge (or a panel of judges) decides matters of fact and application of law to the decided facts.

Usually, decisions of the trier of facts are not overturned except in the egregious circumstances when the lower court may be reversed by an appellate tribunal, i.e., lower court decisions in regard to the reliability of evidence presented are seldom overturned unless there has been a clear abuse of judgment that justice cannot abide.

True

A statement is either true or it is false. If true it contains only allegation of truth. If the statement contains any allegation that does not fall into restricted category known as truth, then the entire statement is deemed false in a court of law. In other words, a true statement contains no falsehood whatsoever.

Trust

Trust is the faith, i.e., the confidence, one person places in another. Without it, the civilized world and all its enterprises would grind to a frightening standstill. Nearly every human endeavor imaginable depends in one way or another on trust. The responsibility entrusted to the person in whom trust is reposed is called a fiduciary duty, i.e., the duty of good faith.

A trust is also a legal entity that is treated in the contemplation of law as an individual person able to hold and manage property, to prosecute and answer lawsuits, and to carry out the business and financial activities that an individual human being might be able to do in his own name. Every trust has at least five "identities": (1) a grantor (sometimes called the trustor) who creates the trust initially, (2) a trustee into whose care and keeping the property of the trust is committed, (3) the property itself (sometimes called the corpus), (4) at least one identified beneficiary, and (5) a declaration of some sort (preferably written and subscribed with the necessary formalities to make it enforceable in a court of law) by which the world is put on notice of the terms and conditions by which the trustee is to hold and manage the money for the use and benefit of the beneficiaries.

Though a trust is treated as a separate individual (e.g., may be required to pay taxes), the actual business of a trust is always handled by a trustee who holds legal title to the trust property, while the equitable (use and benefit) title resides in the named beneficiaries.

When a trust sues or is sued in court, the trustee appears on its behalf and, in most jurisdictions, is required to appear by an attorney rather than individually.

Drafters of trust documents should be careful not to declare a trust that would survive any of the named persons by 21 years or more, for to do so would void the trust in most jurisdictions for violation of the public interest rule against perpetuities. In other words, no valid trust can be created in most jurisdictions if the trust will survive the named persons by 21 years or more, and trusts that attempt to violate this rule against perpetuities may be declared ineffective nullities.

Truth

Truth is that which is. Truth includes what was and what is yet to be. Truth is the sum of all facts. Truth is not subject to interpretation or opinion though, certainly, there is no shortage of human views of what is truth and what truth is not. In spite of all opinion, truth is not subject to human views. Truth exists even where no human ever ventured. Truth was in the beginning and will endure beyond the end.

No false thing is ever true.

No truth is ever false.

Truth is the litigant’s most powerful tool. Cling to it. Insist upon it in your lawsuit. Demand it from your adversaries, and compel the court to permit no deviations.

Lawsuits should be decided solely upon the merits of the law and facts.

No lie has any place in the deliberations of justice.

Let truth alone guide our courts.