(A) contracts. The being employed to serve another. 2. In cases of seduction, the gist of the action is not injury which the seducer has inflicted 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. (B) feudal law. That duty which the tenant 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 exacting them, were either certain or uncertain. 3. In the civil law by service is sometimes understood servitude. (C) practice. To execute a writ or process; as, to serve a writ of capias signifies to arrest a defendant under the process; 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. (D) to deliver legal paperwork (such as a court filed summons and complaint) to a party who is involved in a lawsuit.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In contracts. The being employed to serve another; duty or labor to be rendered by one person to another. The term is used also for employment in one of the offices, departments, or agencies of the government; as in the phrases “civil service,” “public service,” etc. In feudal law. Service was the consideration which the feudal tenants were bound to render to the lord in recompense for the lands they held of him. The services, in respect of their quality, were either free or base services, and, in respect of their quantity and the time of exacting them, were either certain or uncertain. 2 Bl. Comm. 60. In practice. The exhibition or delivery of a writ, notice, injunction, etc., by an authorized person, to a person who is thereby officially notified of some action or proceeding in which he is concerned, and is thereby advised or warned of some action or step which he is commanded to take or to forbear. Civil service. See that title. Constructive service of process. Any form of service other than actual personal service; notification of an action or of some proceeding therein, given to a person affected by sending it to him in the mails or causing it to be published in a newspaper. Personal service. Personal service of a writ or notice is made by delivering it to the person named, in person, or handing him a copy and informing him of the nature and terms of the original. Leaving a copy at his place of abode is not personal service. Moyer v. Cook, 12 Wis. 336. Salvage service. See Salvage. Secular service. Worldly employment or service, as contrasted with spiritual or ecclesiastical. Service by publication. Service of a summons or other process upon an absent or non resident defendant by publishing the same as an advertisement in a designated newspaper, with such other efforts to give him actual notice as the particular statute may prescribe. Service of an heir. An old form of Scotch law, fixing the right and character of an heir to the estate of his ancestor. Bell. Service of process. The service of writs, summonses, rules, etc., signifies the delivering to or leaving them with the party to whom or with whom they ought to be delivered or left; and, when they are so delivered, they are then said to have been served. Usually a copy only is served and the original is shown. Brown. Special service. In Scotch law. That form of service by which the heir is served to the ancestor who was feudally vested in the lands. Bell. Substituted service. This term generally denotes any form of service of process other than personal service, such as service by mail or by publication in a newspaper; but it is sometimes employed to denote service of a writ or notice on some person other than the one directly concerned, for example, his attorney of record, who has authority to represent him or to accept service for him.