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of assuring the deposit and of issuing certified copies
of the
actes
which they receive. The notary has the duty
of safeguarding the custody of the originals of the
actes
which he receives
en minute.
An
acte
drawn
en
minute
is an
actt
the original of which is kept by
the notary who has drawn it, certified copies only being
given to the parties or the persons legally entitled to
call for copies. It is opposed to an
acte
drawn
en
brevet,
where the original document signed by the
notary is handed to one of the parties and a plain copy
is kept in the notary's office. The
acte en brevet
is the
exception and that
en minute
the rule. Only certain
actes
may be drawn
en brevet.
It will be realised that
the whole notarial system depends on the conservation
of these
minutes.
To this end elaborate rules exist
regarding their custody and their transmission where a
practice changes hands. Further, as all
actes
require to
be registered at a government office and certain regis-
tration duties paid, the notary must keep a
reper-
toire,
in the form of a chronological table, of all the
actes
which he receives. This
repertoire
is periodically
called in for inspection by the registration officials, so
as to prevent the evasion of these duties.
Notaries mu:t keep documents for 125 years
The notary, therefore, by reason of his duty to con-
serve his
actes en minutes,
is made into an archivist.
Unlike the solicitor, he has the duty and expense of
keeping at his office a mass of documents, which for
convenience are usually bound chronologically into
volumes, and which are commonly referred to as his
"minutes". He is obliged to keep the
minutes
of him-
self and his predecessors for 125 years. As
minutes
exceed this age, they are periodically delivered up to the
national or district archives.
Notaries must give unbiased careful advice
The statutory definition does not exhaust the func-
tions usually exercised by the notary, although one
may observe that it is largely due to his statutory attri-
butes that these other functions have attached them-
selves to his office. Apart from the preparation of auth-
entic
actes,
which in itself requires considerable skill in
draftsmanship, the notary is often called upon to advise
his clients in all manner of questions affecting their
legal rights, and he does well to weigh carefully what
advice he gices. For, in any dispute which may subse-
quently arise, the courts before whom the matter is
heard will not be slow to rebuke the notary who has
advised his client amiss. Moreover, before any acte is
signed, he must fully instruct the parties in the law as
to the effect of the engagements into which they pro-
pose to enter. Further, the notary may have to act as
judge or arbitrator between the parties who resort to
him, and he should seek to hold the scales evenly. It is
his duty to be impartial: he must not take sides. The
moral obligation upon him to give sound and unbiased
advice is heavy, for the parties having need of his
services often place absolute confidence in him, due to
their own ignorance of the law and to the high prestige
of his office. Nor is the obligation moral only, for its
breach may create legal liability for negligence.
Specialised functions
Certain specialised functions have also been con-
ferred on him by the legislature: thus, he may be
appointed by the court to represent persons who are
presumed to be "absents" in inventories or partitions;
he may likewise be appointed to conduct the liquidation
and draw the involved accounts where a partition is
being carried out through the court; again, where a
public authority is compulsorily acquiring property, he
may be appointed to form part of the commission to
decide the compensation payable (but not, of course,
where the
expropriation
force
concerns any of his
own clients).
Practical work of Notaries
Hitherto the description of the notary's functions has
stemmed from the analysis of a statutory definition.
From a practical point of view, a notary might divide
his work into the following four categories :
(1) Family affairs, such as marriage settlements, wills
and the administration of estates.
(2) Conveyancing: conveyances (ventes) of immov-
ables form a substantial and lucrative part of most
notarial practices. Here must also be included the in-
creasingly important
Reglements
de Copropriete,
a
form of co-ownership of apartments by floors, exten-
sively developed during the present century, especially
at Grenoble and Lyons.
(3) Company affairs, such as company formations,
increases of capital, and the like : in this sphere the
notary, unlike the solicitor, has held his own against
the accountants.
(4) Miscellaneous matters not falling within any of
the other headings, and including advising on almost
every difficulty and problem of daily life.
From this division by way of subject-matter it will be
seen that the notary takes no part in litigation. His
jurisdiction only extends to cases where the parties
voluntarily seek his assistance. If the parties are unable
to reach agreement, he ceases to have jurisdiction, which
then shifts to the courts.
A place of dignity and honour
By virtue of his functions, whether they be assumed
or be attributed to him as a monopoly by the law, the
notary occupies a place of great dignity and honour
in French life. The disinterested counsellor of the
parties, the protector of the interests of the inexper-
ienced and legally incapable, the trusted sharer of the
inner-most secrets of the family and often the peace-
maker in its disputes, he has a high legal and moral
responsibility which generations of notaries have faith-
fully discharged. The tradition of the profession is a
powerful force, only rivalled perhaps by that of the
English Bar, and in its official publicity to school-
leavers and students the profession declares "one can be
proud to belong to a profession of social and economic
importance which with a total personnel of 42,000
members puts it at the head of all the legal pro-
fessions."
How does a notary differ from a solicitor?
The English solicitor differs principally from the
French notary in having no jurisdiction
qua
solicitor
to authenticate the agreements and instruments of his
clients. The monopoly of the solicitor, which means
that certain instruments cannot be drawn up except by
the privileged few competent in that behalf, should not
be confused with the authenticity which a notary may
bestow on his
actes
: the English conveyance, for ex-
ample, is in French eyes an
acte sous seing prive,
even
though, because of its subject-matter, English law has
reserved its preparation to a restricted clas« of persons.
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