Title 01, Title 01: General Provisions

§ 57. Vermont Statutes Annotated, continuation of existing laws The provisions of the Vermont Statutes Annotated, so far as they are the same as those of existing laws, shall be construed as a continuation of those laws and not as new enactments. (Added 1959, No. 262, § 7, eff. J…

§ 59. Certified copy of Vermont Statutes Annotated A copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated shall be kept in the office of the Secretary of State, to which copy that officer shall affix a certificate, under his or her hand and the Seal of the State, that the laws therein containe…

§ 101. Application of chapter In the construction of statutes, the rules set out in this chapter shall be observed, unless such construction is inconsistent with the manifest intent of the General Assembly or repugnant to the context of the same statute.

§ 111. Annual meeting “Annual meeting” when applied to towns shall mean the annual town meeting in March or an adjournment thereof.

§ 112. Biennial; biennially “Biennial” or “biennially” shall mean the year in which a regular session of the General Assembly is held.

§ 113. County; town “County” or “town” may mean the county or town in which the subject matter referred to is situate, belongs, or is cognizable.

§ 114. Domestic and foreign corporations “Domestic” when applied to a corporation, company, association, or copartnership shall mean organized under the laws of this State; “foreign,” when so applied shall mean organized under the laws of another state, government, or country.

§ 115. Fees “Fees” shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation.

§ 116. Folio “Folio” shall mean 100 words.

§ 117. General election; local election “General election” shall mean any election of State and county officers, Representatives to the General Assembly, U.S. Senators, Representative to Congress, or electors. “Local election” shall mean any election of town or village officers i…

§ 118. Grantor; grantee “Grantor” may include every person by or from whom an estate or interest in land is passed in or by a deed. “Grantee” may include every person to whom such estate or interest passes.

§ 119. Highway; road “Highway” or “road” shall include bridges thereon and their approaches.

§ 121. Issue “Issue” as applied to the descent of estates shall include the lawful lineal descendants of the ancestor.

§ 122. Justice “Justice” when applied to a person, other than a Justice of the Supreme Court, shall mean a justice of the peace for the county for which he or she is elected or appointed. (Amended 1965, No. 194, § 10, operative Feb. 1, 1967; 1973, No. 249 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. …

§ 123. Magistrate “Magistrate” shall mean any Supreme Court Justice, Superior judge, District judge, or Probate judge. (Amended 1969, No. 207 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 24, 1970; 1973, No. 249 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. April 9, 1974.)

§ 124. Month; year “Month” shall mean a calendar month and “year” shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression “year of our Lord.”

§ 126. Municipality “Municipality” shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district, or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units.

§ 127. Oath; sworn “Oath” shall include affirmation whereby law an affirmation may be substituted. In like cases, “sworn” shall include affirmed.

§ 128. Person “Person” shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. (Amended 1969, No. 207 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. …

§ 129. Personal estate “Personal estate” shall include all property other than real estate.

§ 130. Population; inhabitants “Population” or “inhabitants” shall mean the population of the political division referred to, as ascertained by the national census last completed before the time when such population is a material fact.

§ 131. Preceding; following; such; said “Preceding” and “following” when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. “Such” and “said” when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thi…

§ 132. Land; lands; real estate “Land,” “lands,” and “real estate” shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate.

§ 133. Seal—Official When a seal of a court, public officer, or corporation is required to be affixed to a paper, “seal” shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto.

§ 134. Private When the private seal of a person or corporation is required on an instrument or writing to make such instrument or writing legal and valid, such seal shall consist of an impression as provided in section 133 of this title or of a wafer, wax, or other adhesive subs…

§ 134a. Registered mail “Registered mail,” as the words appear in Vermont Statutes Annotated, the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure, and the Vermont Rules of Criminal Procedure, when used solely for the purpose of securing evidence of delivery, shall include any method of mail del…

§ 135. School officers “School officers” shall include all persons, other than teachers, who have to do with matters pertaining to public schools. The board of school directors of a town school district or the governing board of an incorporated school district shall constitute th…

§ 136. State “State” when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. (Amended 1959, No. 262, § 11, eff. June 11, 1959.)

§ 137. Sworn “Sworn” when applied to public officers required by the constitution to take certain oaths shall refer to those oaths; when applied to other officers, it shall mean sworn to the faithful discharge of the duties of their offices before a person authorized to administe…

§ 138. Time, how computed When time is to be reckoned from a day, date, or an act done, such day, date, or day when such act is done shall not be included in the computation, unless otherwise provided.

§ 139. Town; town officers “Town” shall include city and wards or precincts therein; “selectboard members” and “board of civil authority” shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; “trustees” shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and th…

§ 140. Village “Village” shall mean an incorporated village.

§ 141. Will “Will” shall include codicils.

§ 142. Written; in writing “Written” or “in writing” may include printing or other mode of representing words and letters, except where the written signature of a person is required.

§ 143. Sexual orientation The term “sexual orientation” means female or male homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality. “Sexual orientation” shall not be construed to protect conduct otherwise proscribed by law. (Added 1991, No. 135 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)

§ 144. Gender identity The term “gender identity” means an individual’s actual or perceived gender identity, or gender-related characteristics intrinsically related to an individual’s gender or gender-identity, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth. (Added 2007, No…

§ 145. Include, includes, and including The terms “include,” “includes,” and “including” mean that the language following the term is illustrative and not exhaustive and shall have the same meaning as though the term were followed by the words “but not limited to.” (Added 2013, N…

§ 146. Intellectual disability “Intellectual disability” or “person with an intellectual disability” shall mean an individual who has significantly subaverage intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior. “Intellectual disability” replaces wha…

§ 147. Psychiatric disability “Psychiatric disability” means an impairment of thought, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that limits one or more major life activities but does not include intellectual disability. (Added 2013, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 2c.)

§ 148. Developmental disability “Developmental disability” or “person with developmental disabilities” shall have the same meaning as in 18 V.S.A. § 9302. (Added 2013, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 2d.)

§ 149. Semiweekly Unless a statute provides a more specific definition, “semiweekly” means twice per week. (Added 2015, No. 57, § 34, eff. June 11, 2015.)

§ 150. Legally protected health care activity (a) “Gender-affirming health care services” means all supplies, care, and services of a medical, behavioral health, mental health, surgical, psychiatric, therapeutic, diagnostic, preventative, rehabilitative, or supportive nature, inc…

§ 151. Behavioral health “Behavioral health” means any behavioral condition bearing on health, including stress-linked physical symptoms, patient activation, and health behaviors that can be addressed through support, counseling, change techniques, coaching, and other interventio…

§ 171. Court; officer; board When a court, officer, or board is named by official title, such designation shall apply to the court, officer, or board of the county, town, or place within and for which they are qualified to act.

§ 172. Joint authority When joint authority is given to three or more, the concurrence of a majority of such number shall be sufficient and shall be required in its exercise.

§ 173. Minors Persons of the age of 18 years shall be considered of age and until they attain that age, shall be minors. Whenever referred to in the laws of this State, a person who is an adult or who has attained majority shall be a resident or nonresident person of 18 years of …