SERVICE, contracts. The being employed to serve another.

2. In cases of seduction, the gist³ of the action is not injury which the seducer⁴ has inflicted⁵ on the parent by destroying his peace of mind, and the reputation of his child, but for the consequent inability to perform those services for which she was accountable to her master or her parent who assumes this character for the purpose Vide Seduction, and 2 Mees. & W. 539; 7 Car. & P. 528.

SERVICE, feudal⁶ law. That duty which the tenant⁷ owes to his lord, by reason of his fee or estate.

2. The services, in respect of their quality, were either free or base, and in respect of their quantity and the time of exacting⁸ them, were either certain or uncertain. 2 Bl. Com. 62.

3. In the civil law by service is sometimes understood servitude. (q. v.)

SERVICE, practice. To execute a writ⁹ or process; as, to serve a writ of capias signifies to arrest a defendant¹⁰ under the process; Kirby, 48; 2 Aik. R. 338; 11 Mass. 181; to serve a summons, is to deliver a copy of it at the house of the party, or to deliver it to him personally, or to read it to him; notices and other papers are served by delivering the same at the house of the party, or to him in person.

2. When the service of a writ is prevented by the act of the party on whom it is to be served, it will, in general, be sufficient if the officer do everything in his power to serve it. 39 Eng. C. L. R. 431 1 M. & G. 238.

SERVIENT, civil law. A term applied¹¹ to an estate or tenement¹² by which a servitude is due to another estate or tenement. See Dominant¹³; Servitude.

SERVITUDE, civil law. A term which indicates the subjection of one person to another person, or of a person to a thing, or of a thing to a person, or of a thing to a thing.

2. Hence servitudes are divided into real, personal, and mixed. Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1.

3. A real or predial servitude is a charge laid on an estate for the use and utility of another estate belonging to another proprietor¹⁴. Louis. Code, art. 643. When used without any adjunct, the word servitude means a real or predial servitude. Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1.

4. The subjection of one person to another is a purely¹⁵ personal servitude; if it exists in the right of property which a person exercises over another, it is slavery. When the subjection of one person to another is not slavery, it consists simply in the right of requiring of another what he is bound to do, or not to do; this right arises from all kinds of contracts or quasi con¹ tracts². Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1, art. 1.

5. The subjection of persons to things or of things to persons, are mixed servitudes. Lois des Bat. P. 1, c. 1, art. 2.

6. Real servitudes are divided into rural and urban. Rural servitudes are those which are due by an estate to another estate, such as the right of passage over the serving estate, or that which owes the servitude, or to draw water from it, or to water cattle there, or to take coal, lime and wood from it, and the like. Urban servitudes are those which are established over a building fur the convenience of another, such as the right of resting the joists in the wall of the serving building, of opening windows which overlook the serving estate, and the like. Dict. de Jurisp. tit. Servitudes. See, generally, Lois des Bat. Part 1 Louis. Code, tit. 4; Code Civil, B. 2, tit. 4; This Dict. tit. Ancient Lights; Easements; Ways; Lalaure, Des Servitudes, passim.