Who will inherit Beatriz Sarlo?: A complex legal framework for the intellectual's succession

The inheritance trial of Beatriz Sarlo , which has become confidential and accessible only to the parties involved, has taken a step forward with the judicial measure ordered by Judge Cecilia Kandus of the 24th National Civil Court, which ordered the inventory of the assets. existing in the apartment at 140 Hidalgo Street that belonged to the deceased essayist, and had the lock changed .

The court's decision, despite the secrecy maintained by Sarlo's friends and those who claim to be the "sole heir," was reportedly in response to the request of the last claimant to the inheritance, Ernestina del Río , a cousin of the deceased essayist.

The intestate succession (without a will) was initiated last February by Alberto Sato, whom Sarlo married in 1960 and from whom she separated in the 1970s . At that time, legal divorce did not exist.

In June 1987, during Raúl Alfonsín's presidency, the binding divorce law 23,515 was passed, allowing divorcees to remarry. Even so, Beatriz Sarlo was not legally divorced. However, her 40-year relationship with filmmaker Rafael Filipelli, who died in 2023, was publicly known.

The Civil and Commercial Code, following the 2015 reform, establishes in Article 2437, corresponding to the transfer of rights upon death and relating to "the succession of a spouse," that "divorce, de facto separation without the will to unite, and any judicial decision of any kind that implies the cessation of cohabitation exclude inheritance rights between spouses." This will Sarlo made public upon joining Filipelli for four decades.

The article corresponds to the title of "intestate successions" of the new Code and here appears the first obstacle for Alberto Sato , Sarlo's ex-husband: Melanio Alberto Meza López , manager of the building at Hidalgo 140, Paraguayan, single with a pregnant girlfriend, and human responsible for Nini, Sarlo's cat, according to a manuscript that Melanio attributes to the essayist. It will have to be proven.

According to Alberto Meza, as Sarlo called him, he has two documents—which have already been made public in all the media—that certify him as the sole heir to the apartment where the author of La intimidad pública lived. And, according to various accounts, when the essayist was "widowed" by Filipelli, he was of great help .

The documents attributed to Sarlo by Meza López, which contain dates and the name Beatriz Sarlo, are unclear as to their status as a "holographic will," since nowhere do they state that the author transfers ownership or usufruct to him. She merely leaves him "in charge." And civil law is very precise.

In Title XI relating to testamentary successions, the Code refers to handwritten wills and states that “it must be entirely written in the characters of the language in which it is granted, dated and formed by the same hand of the testator” , states Article 2477. And it adds other formalities such as that the signature must be after what is stipulated, that an error in the date does not invalidate the document, unless the date is false to violate a provision of public order, and that additions “by a foreign hand” invalidate the document.

There are two pieces of information that the judge who ultimately agrees to continue the probate trial, which has already been heard by three civil judges and the Chamber , will have to validate: one relating to the signature and another relating to the notarization , which at least up to now no one has mentioned.

The Civil Code states that when a signature is required in wills, it must be written as the author used to write it on public and private documents . Simply writing the name is not enough. It must be signed. "Spelling errors or omissions of letters do not necessarily invalidate the signature," states Article 2476, but it leaves the determination of its validity to judicial discretion.

The other issue is equally important. This occurred during Maria Kodama's succession, with the surprising appearance of her five nephews (children of her deceased brother Jorge), when the raffle was being drawn to determine who would be Kodama's heir. Holographic wills must be notarized and validated. The notarization can be prior, by the testator who sends it to the Notary Association for registration, or later, if it is the probate judge who—once validated—sends it for registration.

Before declaring María Kodama's nieces heirs, the court took this step to determine whether there was an unknown will on her behalf.

The purpose of notarizing a holographic will is to give it the status of a public instrument . It is a protective and security measure that does not prejudge the validity of the will, so it cannot be challenged.

A question still unanswered given the confidentiality of the case file: What is the degree of collateral kinship of Beatriz Sarlo's missing cousin? If she is a first-degree blood cousin (a first cousin, for example) and up to a fourth-degree collateral cousin, this could displace the aspirations of the alleged testamentary heir and the husband who reappeared after 50 years of de facto separation.

Clarín attempted to contact the lawyers for Sato, Meza, and Sarlo's executor, the prominent essayist Sylvia Saítta, without success. We also spoke with a friend close to Beatriz Sarlo, who has close ties to Sato and her lawyer, who said: "They won't talk. They've decided to say nothing and wait for justice to rule ." This could take a long time.

Among the civil judge's measures is the summoning of experts to verify the legitimacy of the two Beatriz Sarlo manuscripts in Melanio Alberto Meza López's possession. Only after this measure would the goalkeeper have standing to appear in the probate proceedings.

In the middle of this conflict between people with inheritance aspirations , the City Government is already taking a stand against the possibility of the inheritance proceedings being declared vacant. For now, it acts as a neutral observer.

When she wrote La intimidad pública, it is certain that Beatriz Sarlo was unaware that, upon her death, she would be left in the middle of such a public controversy .

In an excerpt from his book, he wrote: “Scandal and public repercussion are intertwined. Occupying a public space, even for a fleeting moment, is not only the consequence but an inseparable condition of successful scandal . Therefore, scandal is one of the forms of current notoriety, a form that demands neither quality nor achievements from its protagonists, but rather that they be sufficiently well-known to become personalities. This is a requirement, and it doesn't always work invariably well or with the same intensity.”

Sarlo, who had quality and achievements, and whose essays made her one of the greatest intellectuals of Argentina , would abhor this pedestrian notoriety caused by the fate of her apartment and her cat Nini.