On June 23, 2020, the Plenary of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, in its ruling on case No. 1276-2020, agreed to leave without effect the public deed dated April 8, 2020, entitled “Purchase and Sale at Auction and Probate Eleventh Civil Court of Santiago by Toro Muñoz Tamara Ignacia to Arteaga and Compañía Limitada”, that was authorized by the Notary Public of Santiago, Valeria Ronchera Flores, considering that the way the document was issued is contrary to the rules contained in the Organic Code of Courts.

In effect, the Court determined that the deed in question, authorized by Notary Public Valeria Ronchera Flores, and which was electronically signed by the parties, was granted in contrast to the provisions of Articles 405, 426 and 429 of the Organic Code of Courts, since the granting of such deed should have been made in material form.

The above is consistent with what was stated by the President of the National Association of Notaries, Conservators and Judicial Archivists of Chile, Mr. Mauricio Astudillo Pizarro, in an evacuation report to the Supreme Court, in the sense that the granting of a public deed is an act necessarily performed in person, with a handwritten signature, using fixed ink or indelible paste, therefore, in paper format. Consequently, a document granted in another manner, such as one in which one or more parties have signed with an advanced electronic signature, does not constitute a public deed. For his part, the Conservative of Real Estate of Santiago, Mr. Luis Alberto Maldonado Croquevielle, prior to the pronouncement of the Plenary of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, had refused to practice the required inscriptions in relation to the above mentioned deed, because it is considered that the solemnities for the granting of a public deed require -among others- the personal appearance of the grantors before the respective minister of public faith, who can only grant the instrument and incorporate it in his protocol, and that, in the event that the grantor cannot appear, the law allows him to do so through a representative specially empowered for that purpose.

In case you require additional information on this matter, you may contact Sven Herlin (sherlin@jdf.cl) and/or Julio Trucco (jtrucco@jdf.cl).