73-114. STATUTORY TERMS DEFINED. (1) Unless otherwise defined for purposes of a specific statute:

(a) Words used in these compiled laws in the present tense, include the future as well as the present;

(b) Words used in the masculine gender, include the feminine and neuter;

(c) The singular number includes the plural and the plural the singular;

(d) The word "person" includes a corporation as well as a natural person;

(e) Writing includes printing;

(f) Oath includes affirmation or declaration, and every mode of oral statement, under oath or affirmation, is embraced by the term "testify," and every written one in the term "depose";

(g) Signature or subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his name being written near it, and witnessed by a person who writes his own name as a witness.

(2) The following words have, in the compiled laws, the signification attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the context:

(a) "Intellectual disability" means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning that is accompanied by significant limitations in adaptive functioning in at least two (2) of the following skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social or interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self-direction, functional academic skills, work, leisure, health and safety. The onset of significantly subaverage general intelligence functioning and significant limitations in adaptive functioning must occur before age eighteen (18) years.

(b) "Month" means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed.

(c) "Personal property" includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, evidences of debt and general intangibles as defined in the uniform commercial code — secured transactions.

(d) "Property" includes both real and personal property.

(e) "Real property" is coextensive with lands, tenements and hereditaments, possessory rights and claims.

(f) "Registered mail" includes certified mail.

(g) "State," when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories; and the words "United States" may include the District of Columbia and territories.

(h) "Will" includes codicils.

(i) "Writ" signifies an order or precept in writing, issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer, and the word "process," a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings.

History:

[(73-114) C.C.P. 1881, sec. 13; R.S., sec. 16; reen. R.C., sec. 16; reen. C.L. 500:16; C.S., sec. 9456; reen. 1899, ch. 5, sec. 1, p. 147; reen. R.C., sec. 5149; reen. C.L. 500:16; C.S., sec. 9456; I.C.A., sec. 70-114; am. 1959, ch. 16, sec. 1, p. 36; am. 1967, ch. 272, sec. 31, p. 745; am. 2010, ch. 235, sec. 72, p. 607.]