Service

In Feudal Law

That duty which the tenant owed to his lord by reason of his fee or estate. 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.

2 Bl. Comm. 62.

In Civil Law. A servitude. In Practice. The execution of a writ or process. Thus, to serve a writ of capias signifies to arrest a defendant under the process (Kirby [Conn.] 48; 2 Aik. [Vt.] 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. Service of process is either (1) actual, or (2) constructive; constructive service being such as is by law conclusively presumed to give notice, e. g., by publication or posting. Actual service is either (a) personal, by actual delivery o£ the process to the person to be served, or (b) substituted, being by such a disposition as the law deems to be the equivalent of personal service, e. g., by leaving at his dwelling house. 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, he sufficient if the ofl Scer do everything in his power to serve it.

1 Man. & G. 238.