New York Consolidated Laws, Mental Hygiene Law - MHY § 83.03 Definitions

(a) “Adult” means an individual who has attained eighteen years of age.

(b) “Emergency” means a circumstance that likely will result in substantial harm to a respondent's health, safety or welfare, and for which the appointment of a guardian is necessary because no other person has authority and is willing to act on the respondent's behalf.

(c) “Guardian of the property” means a person appointed by the court to administer the property of an adult, including a person appointed under article eighty-one of this title and article seventeen-A of the surrogate's court procedure act, and including a conservator appointed by a court in another state.

(d) “Guardian of the person” means a person appointed by the court to make decisions regarding the person of an adult, including a person appointed under article eighty-one of this title and article seventeen-A of the surrogate's court procedure act.

(e) “Home state” means the state in which the respondent was physically present, including any period of temporary absence, for at least six consecutive months immediately before the filing of a petition for a protective order or the appointment of a guardian of the person; or if none, the state in which the respondent was physically present, including any period of temporary absence, for at least six consecutive months ending within the six months prior to the filing of the petition.

(f) “Party” means the respondent, petitioner, guardian of the person, conservator guardian of the property, or any other person allowed by the court to participate in a guardianship proceeding for the appointment of a guardian of the person or a protective proceeding.

(g) “Person”, except in the term incapacitated person for whom a guardian of the person has been appointed or protected person, means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.

(h) “Protected person” means an adult for whom a protective order has been issued.

(i) “Protective order” means an order appointing a conservator, guardian of the property or other order related to management of an adult's property.

(j) “Protective proceeding” means a judicial proceeding in which a protective order is sought or has been issued.

(k) “Record” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

(l) “Respondent” means an adult for whom a protective order or the appointment of a guardian of the person is sought.

(m) “Significant-connection state” means a state, other than the home state, with which a respondent has a significant connection other than mere physical presence and in which substantial evidence concerning the respondent is available.

(n) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, a federally recognized Indian tribe, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.