services of wife

A term of art. In connection with the right of a husband to maintain an action for the loss of his wife's "services," the word has come down to us from times in which the action originated, and it fails to express to the common mind the exact legal idea intended by it. The word, as so used, implies whatever of comfort, aid, assistance, and society the wife would be expected to render to or bestow upon her husband, under the circumstances and in the condition in which they may be placed, whatever those may be. (Cooley on Torts.) See Womach v St. Joseph, 201 Mo 467, 100 SW 443. See services and labor.