Penal Servitude

A punishment which consists in keeping an offender in confinement and compelling him to labor.

In English criminal law, a punishment which consists in keeping the offender in confinement and compelling him to labor.
2. A charge or burden resting upon one estate for the benefit or advantage of another ; a species of Incorporeal right derived from the civil law (see Servjtus) and closely corresponding to the "casement" of the common-law, except that "servitude" rather has relation to the burden or the estate burdened, while "easement" refers to the benefit or advantage or the estote to which it accrues. See Nellis v. Munson, 24 Hun (N. Y.) 576; Rowe v. Nally, 81 Md. 367, 32 AH. 198; Los Angeles Terminal Land Co. v. Muir, 136 Cal. 36, 68 Pac. 308; Laumler v. Francis, 23 Mo. 184; Ritger v. Parker, 8 Cush. (Mass.) 145, 54 Am. Dec. 744; Kief-fer v. Imhoff, 26 Pa. 438. The term "servifude," in its original and popular sense, signifies the duty of pervice, or rather the condition of one who is liable to the performance of services. The word, however. in its legal sense, is applied figuratively to things. When the freedom of ownership in land is fettered or restricted, by reason of some person, other than the owner thereof, having some right therein, the land is said to "serve" such person. The restricted condition of the ownership or the right which forms the subject-matter of the restriction is termed a "servifude," and the land so burdened with another's right is termed a "servient tenement," while' the land belonging to the person enjoying the right is called the "dominant tenement. The word "servifude" may be said to have both a positive and a negative signification; in the former sense denoting the restrictive right belonging to the entitled party; in the latter, the restrictive duty entailed upon the proprietor or possessor of the servient land. Brown. Classification. All servitudes which affect lands may be divided into two kinds, —personal and real. Personal servitudes are those attached to the person for whose benefit they are established, and terminate with his life. This kind of servitude is of three sorts,—usufruct, use, and habitation. Real servitudes, which are alao called "predial" or "landed" servitudes, are those which the owner of an estate enjoys on a neighboring estate for the benefit of his own estate. They are called "predial" or "landed" servitudes because, being established for the benefit of an estate, they are rather due to the estote than to the owner personally. Civ. Code La. art. 646. Real servitudes are divided, in the civil law, into rural and urban servitudes. Rural servitudes are such as are established for the benefit of a landed estate; such, for example, as a right of way ovor the servient tenement, or of access to a spring, a coalmine, a sand-pit, or a wood that is upon it. Urban servitudes are such as are established for the benefit of one building over another. (But the buildings need not be in the city, as the name would apparently imply.) They are such as the right of support, or of view, or of drip or sewer, or the like. See Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 316, et seq. Servitudes are also classed as positive and negative. A positive servitude is one which obliges the owner of the servient estate to permit or suffer semething to be done on his property by another. A negative servitude is one which does not bind the servient proprietor to permit something to be done upon his property by another, but merely restrains him from making a certain use of his property which would impair the easement enjoyed by the dominant tenement. See Rowe v. Nally, 81 Md. 367, 32 Atl. 198.

Defined under Servitude in Black's Law Dictionary.