22/01/2025
JUSTICE AMY'S PENNED CASE!!⚖️👩⚖️
Spouses Antonio & Josefa Tan vs Atty. Maria Vallejo
A.C. No. 11219, March 16, 2022
Issue: Whether or not a notary public can perform a notarial act in an instrument where one of the contracting parties is her uncle or one of her relatives?
Ruling: The Supreme Court noted that the prohibition in Section 3(c), Rule IV of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice is applicable in this case. It states that a notary public is disqualified from performing a notarial act if he: (a) is a party to the instrument or document that is to be notarized; (b) will receive, as a direct or indirect result, any commission, fee, advantage, right, title, interest, cash, property, or other consideration, except as provided by these Rules and by law; or (c) is a spouse, common-law partner, ancestor, descendant, or relative by affinity or consanguinity of the principal within the fourth civil degree.
In this case, the respondent admitted that her uncle came to her office in the company of complainants for the notarization of the Deed of Absolute Sale and Affidavit of Confirmation of Sale.
Indeed, what the respondent did here—notarizing a document where one of the contracting parties was her relative within the fourth civil degree—is a clear circumvention of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice. To accept her argument that the prohibition did not attach to her because her uncle's signature did not appear on the sale documents would definitely set a dangerous precedent that will erode the integrity of the system of notary in the country. For then, parties could simply opt for a unilateral deed of conveyance with the end in view of doing indirectly what the law prohibits them from doing directly.
Hence, the respondent is found liable for violation of Section 3(c) Rule IV of A.M. No. 02-8-13-SC, otherwise known as the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice, and as a penalty, she is disqualified from being commissioned as a notary public or from performing any notarial act if she is presently commissioned as a notary public, for a period of three months.
