Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 87 § 87.142 — Definitions

Definitions for ORS 87.142 to 87.490 and 87.910. As used in ORS 87.142 to 87.490 and 87.910, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) “Animal” means any mammal, bird, fish, reptile, amphibian or insect. (2) “Chattel” includes movable objects that are capable of being owned, but does not include personal rights not reduced to possession but recoverable by an action at law or suit in equity, money, evidence of debt and negotiable instruments. (3) “Electric cooperative” means a cooperative corporation organized under ORS chapter 62 the principal business of which is the construction, maintenance and operation of an electric transmission and distribution system for the benefit of the members of that cooperative corporation and which has no other principal business or purpose. (4) “Electric utility” means a corporation engaged in distributing electricity, directly or indirectly, to or for the public and regulated by the Public Utility Commission under ORS chapter 757. (5) “Excavation” means a shaft, tunnel, incline, adit, drift or other excavation designed for the use, working or draining of a mine. (6) “Fair market value” means, with respect to a chattel sold at a foreclosure sale under this chapter, the price of chattels of the same kind and condition prevailing in the county of sale at the time of sale. (7) “Fungible chattels” means chattels of which any unit is the equivalent of any other unit. (8) “Improvement” means a road, tramway, trail, flume, ditch, pipeline, building, structure, superstructure or boardinghouse used for or in connection with the working or development of a mine. (9) “Irrigation” includes the use of canals, ditches, pipes, pumps, spraying apparatus and other mechanical devices to water land artificially. (10) “Mine” means a mine, lode, mining claim or deposit that contains or may contain coal, metal or mineral of any kind. (11) “Mortgagee” means a person who has a valid subsisting mortgage of record or trust deed of record securing a loan upon any real property to be charged with a lien under ORS 87.352 to 87.362. (12) “Nursery stock” means fruit trees, fruit-tree stock, nut trees, grapevines, fruit bushes, rose bushes, rose stock, forest and ornamental trees, and shrubs both deciduous and evergreen, florists’ stock and cuttings, scions and seedlings of fruit or ornamental trees and shrubs, and all other fruit-bearing plants and parts thereof and plant products for propagation or planting. (13) “Owner” includes: (a) A person who has title to a chattel or real property; (b) A person who is in possession of a chattel or real property under an agreement for the purchase thereof, whether the title thereto is in the person or the vendor of the person; or (c) A person who is in lawful possession of a chattel or real property. (14) “Person” includes individuals, corporations, associations, firms, partnerships and joint stock companies. (15) “Security interest” means an interest in a chattel reserved or created by an agreement that secures payment or performance of an obligation as more particularly defined by ORS 71.2010 (2)(jj). (16) “Timbers” means sawlogs, spars, piles, felled logs and other wood growth that has been cut or separated from land. (17) “Wood products” includes lumber, slabwood, plywood and other wood products produced from timbers. The term does not include paper or products made from paper. [1975 c.648 §1; 1999 c.940 §1; 2001 c.301 §5; 2009 c.181 §104; 2025 c.33 §101]