Four Documents, One Notary, One Boss
Rita is the office manager and the only notary at a small excavating company owned by Mr. Pike. On a Friday afternoon Mr. Pike asks her to notarize four items before the bank closes: (1) a lien waiver that a customer, Ms. Tran, has come in to sign; (2) an affidavit Rita herself signed as office manager describing the company's payroll practices; (3) a quitclaim deed transferring Mr. Pike's lake cabin "as a bonus for ten years of service" from Mr. Pike to Rita, with Mr. Pike present and holding a current passport; and (4) her husband's signature on a loan application for the couple's side business, on which Rita is also a listed borrower. Mr. Pike says the bank "won't care" and that refusing would be insubordinate.
1. For each of the four documents, state whether Rita may notarize it and explain the governing principle.
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(1) Ms. Tran's lien waiver - yes. Ms. Tran is present, Rita has no interest in the transaction, and Rita completes the certificate based on satisfactory evidence or personal knowledge of Ms. Tran.
(2) Rita's own affidavit - no. A notary cannot notarize her own signature. The notary's certificate would be asserting that Rita appeared before herself, which is impossible, and the whole point of a notarial act is independent verification.
(3) The quitclaim deed from Mr. Pike to Rita - no. Rita is a grantee and therefore has a direct beneficial interest in the transaction. A notary may not perform a notarial act on a document in which she has a beneficial interest; the appearance of coercion is also obvious, since the transfer is compensation coming from her boss.
(4) Her husband's loan application - no. Rita is a co-borrower, so she is a party with a direct beneficial interest. Even if the document is nominally her husband's, her own obligation is created or affected by it.
The general test: is the notary a signer, a party, or someone who gains or loses something from the transaction? If yes, the notary must step aside regardless of who asks.
2. What are the consequences if Rita complies, and how should she handle the pressure from her employer?
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Consequences of complying:
- The notarial certificates are defective. A recorder, lender, title insurer, or court may reject the documents, and the transfer in item (3) may be vulnerable to challenge later.
- Rita faces personal civil liability, and claims may be made against her surety bond - which protects the public, not the notary, and does not shield her from personal responsibility.
- Performing notarial acts where she is a signer or interested party is a prohibited act and exposes her commission to discipline, including revocation.
- "The bank won't care" is irrelevant; the bank's practices do not override the statute.
How to handle it: decline in writing, state the specific reason for each document, and offer workable alternatives - a mobile notary, the bank's own notary, or another employee getting commissioned. Item (3) should be notarized by an entirely independent notary, ideally one chosen by Mr. Pike rather than by Rita. Rita should keep a copy of the refusal; a notary's obligation to comply with the law does not yield to a supervisor's instruction.