Título II. Protocolo

The Protocol is the ordered collection of the master deeds, of the protocolization records, notations of legalization of signatures and documents that the Notary registers in accordance with this law.

Master deeds, records of protocolization and notations of signature legalization shall be drawn up on special stamped paper for protocols.

The fiscal offices shall sell exclusively to notaries in practice the paper for protocol, in lots of at least twenty-five sheets, keeping the correlative order therein. Said offices shall enter the sale in a register book, in which shall be recorded the series and the numbers of the paper, and the name and signature and seal of the Notary who receives the paper for himself, or on behalf of another Notary.

The protocol of the Government Notary, those of the diplomatic and consular agents, and the respective certified copies and indexes, shall be drawn up on linen paper or similar, without prejudice to the corresponding fiscal tax.

Notaries shall pay at the Treasury of the Judicial Branch fifty quetzales (Q 50.00), each year, as a protocol opening fee. Funds collected for this purpose shall be allocated to the binding of the special testimonies sent by the Notaries to the General Archive and to the preservation of the protocols.

The protocol is opened with the first instrument authorized by the Notary, which shall begin on the first line of the initial sheet. It shall be closed each year on December 31, or earlier if the Notary ceases to act as a notary. The closing notation shall contain: the date; the number of public documents authorized; notations of legalization of signatures and records of protocolization; the number of folios of which it is composed; observations, if any; and the signature of the Notary.

The following formalities must be observed in the protocol:

1st Public instruments shall be drafted in Spanish and shall be written by machine or by hand, legibly and without abbreviations;

2nd Instruments shall bear cardinal numbering, and shall be written one after another, in strict order of dates and leaving, from instrument to instrument, only the space necessary for the signatures;

3rd The protocol shall bear cardinal foliation, written in figures;

4th In the body of the instrument, dates, numbers or amounts shall be expressed in words. In case of discrepancy between what is written in words and in figures, what is expressed in words shall prevail;

5th Documents that must be inserted or the relevant parts that are transcribed shall be copied verbatim;

6th The fiscal numbering of the stamped paper may not be interrupted except for the intercalation of documents that are protocolized; or in the event that the notary has finished the series; and

7th Blank spaces that would allow intercalations shall be filled with a line before the instrument is signed.

Additions, interlineations, and deletions shall be null if they are not noted at the end of the document and before the signatures. Emendations of words are prohibited.

The index of the protocol shall be drawn up on stamped paper of the same value as that used therein, and shall contain in separate columns:

1st The order number of the Instrument;

2nd The place and date of its execution;

3rd The names of the grantors;

4th The object of the instrument; and

5th The folio on which it begins.

Numerals and abbreviations may be used in the index.

The index shall be dated and signed by the Notary and, before signing it, the Notary may make the pertinent observations.

The notary shall add at the end of the respective volume of the protocol, the supporting documents relating to the instruments authorized by the notary, if they have not been transcribed, and the proof of payment referred to in Article 11 of this law.

The notary shall have the protocol bound within thirty days following its closing.

The notary is the depositary of the protocol and responsible for its preservation.

The protocol may not be removed from the Notary's possession, except in the cases provided for by this law.

Except in the case of summary investigation for a crime, only the Inspector of Protocols is authorized to fully review the notarial register.

The master deeds may be consulted by any person having an interest, in the presence of the Notary, except for wills and donations by reason of death, while the grantors are alive, for only to them belongs that right.

If the Notary refuses to exhibit the deed, the judge of First Instance of his jurisdiction, after a twenty-four-hour hearing, which he shall grant to the Notary, shall issue the corresponding decision.

The executors, heirs or relatives, or any other person who has in their possession the protocol of a deceased notary, shall deposit it within the thirty days following the death, in the General Archive of Protocols, if it is located in the capital, or within the same time limit with the judge of First Instance or municipal mayor, if it is located in a departmental capital or municipality, respectively. In these cases the judge of First Instance or the municipal mayor shall forward it within the eight days following its deposit to said Archive.

The civil registrar, upon recording the death entry of a notary, if it should occur in the capital, shall immediately give notice to the director of the General Archive of Protocols and, if it should occur in a department, to the jurisdictional First Instance judge, so that they may, as applicable, require compliance with the preceding article.

In case of non-compliance by the person in whose possession is the protocol of a deceased notary, the jurisdictional First Instance judge, at the request of the director of the General Archive, or on its own initiative, shall make use of legal coercive measures until delivery is obtained.

The notary who for any cause becomes disqualified from exercising notarial functions shall deliver his protocol to the General Archive in the capital and to the judge of First Instance in the departments, who shall forward it to said Archive within the following eight days. The notary may also deliver his protocol to the General Archive if he so wishes.

The Notary who must be absent from the Republic for a term of more than one year shall deliver his Protocol to the General Archive of Protocols in the capital and, in the departments, to the Judge of First Instance, who shall forward it to said archive. If the absence of the Notary is for a shorter time limit, he shall deposit it with another qualified Notary, notice signed and sealed by both Notaries having to be given to the Director of the General Archive of Protocols in the capital, or to a Judge of First Instance of the domicile of the Notary, when the Notary does not have his domicile in the Department of Guatemala, who must forward it to the General Archive of Protocols within the term of eight days. The notice shall indicate the name and address of the Notary with whom the protocol remains deposited.

The depositary Notary may issue certified copies and furnish to whoever requests them the reports required of him, in relation to the deposited protocol.

The copy of the notice duly sealed by the General Archive of Protocols, or the Judge of First Instance as the case may be, shall be sufficient document to allow the Notary to leave the country.

The General Directorate of Migration shall have a roster of Notaries in practice, which the Director of the General Archive of Protocols shall provide to it and keep up to date for the corresponding control.

The deposited protocols shall be returned upon the personal request of the depositing notary, when the cause of the deposit ceases.