Journalists Javier Ronda and Marián Campra sign Notary on duty, a book very well received by readers of Palencia, who amuse themselves with this compilation of some 200 anecdotes that occurred in more than a hundred notaries throughout the country. “Wills, inheritances, weddings, mortgages, records, notary examinations and an endless number of real curiosities narrated by the notaries themselves, between the bizarre and the grotesque, where we can sometimes see ourselves represented”, say the authors, who add that “Everything is possible” in Notario de Guardia, the first Spanish work of anecdotes about notaries: fights over a sewing machine in a millionaire inheritance, living people posing as dead in a will and hiding the deceased, a will where a cats, funeral urns on a one-story mortgage, gothic weddings at a notary’s office or a spa, crying babies but falling asleep reading a home purchase deed.
The book contains a dozen cartoons, plus the cover, by the well-known cartoonist Pachi (South of Malaga).
The two authors of Notario de Guardia are specialists in anecdotes and have written other funny works with editorial success on Justice (De Juzgado de Guardia), Guardia Civil (Tricornio de Guardia) or neighborhood communities (Vecino de Guardia).
local. Focused on Palencia, the authors of the book explain that the first thing that stands out is that, at the moment, in the capital of Palencia there are more women notaries: three compared to two men. “In 2016 the female comeback began with the arrival of Raquel Rodríguez Repiso”, they point out, to emphasize in a row that “the female presence is increasing in the profession: Palencia is a clear Spanish example.”
An anecdote framed in the pandemic situation that we have to live is related to the moment of signing in a notary’s office, when the citizen takes the pen and, without coming to mind, lowers the mask, looking the notary in the face. «And what does the signature have to do with the hand, with the face or the mask, nothing; the nerves are the nerves, when one signs something important in life … The mask is not an obstacle to identify people in a notary’s office during this pandemic. We lose weight, we get fat, short hair, curly hair, color change. But, what is the only thing that does not change: the eyes “, says Javier Ronda from the hand of the experienced notary of Palencia Juan Carlos Villamuza, with decades of profession, who affirms that” the eyes do not deceive; I look at the eyes, they don’t change; the look, the expression, in that sense the mask does not matter, the person can always be perfectly identified by the eyes ».
In a town in the province there was not much to distribute after the death of the parents. The brothers finished cakes for a closet of little patrimonial value. The furniture was not made of walnut, nor was it a piece from a traditional museum. It was simply the dispute between brothers, between them, for which he had kept the wardrobe and no inheritance was signed there, of course.
The profession of a notary involves risks, although it may seem otherwise. In this sense, the authors of the book refer to a situation experienced in the province. “On one occasion, after the death of a woman who had few assets, the fight between the brothers was brutal. First at the notary and then on the street. The notary even intervened as in a boxing match, separating the two brothers. The confrontation ended with the intervention of the authorities and with one of the brothers who had to be treated in the hospital for the wounds suffered during the fight.
On another occasion, journalists report, a notary carried a payment order for a neighbor of a town in the province. “When he was approaching the house, the debtor took out a huge dog, which was scary, and began to point at the notary. The notification was pending and for the notarial history of Palencia. The notary could end up with one less arm because the dog only looked at the hand where the notification was carried. The dog is not the notary’s best friend, especially if he has a document for a debtor, “they conclude.
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