Bajamontes’ inheritance causes legal conflict between his biological daughters and another daughter he adopted at 91 | Relief
Federico Martin Bajamontes died on August 8, 2023 in Valladolid at the age of 95.. A left-wing pioneer of cycling, the first great champion of Spain.I, the legend of a country that at one time had no athletes to boast of, with the exception of the man from Toledo, one of the best climbers his sport has ever seen.
Bajamontes, 1959 Tour de France champion and six-time winner of the mountain prize, surpassed only by Richard Virenque, He also left behind a legacy and the story of some biological daughters who were disinherited by the cyclist as a result of an operation carried out during Bajamontes’s lifetime, which was accompanied by a number of legal doubts. which they cling to in order to reverse the situation in which they find themselves defenseless. This is the story of a legal battle currently being fought in the Toledo courts. and which is based on documents to which Relevo had access.
By nickname ‘Eagle of Toledo’Bajamontes married Fermina in 1956.who was his only wife until her death in 2018. The couple had no children, but the cyclist is the father of two illegitimate twin daughters. in 1987 Maria Angelica and Maria Victoria. This was the composition of the family before AndIn 2019, Bajamontes adopted a third daughter named Victoria Sahagún. At that time he was 91 years old and she was 45.. Victoria Sahagún after seven different wills signed by Bajamontes – last April 6, 2022 – the woman who inherited the cyclist’s entire inheritance. This media contacted both parties, the biological daughters and the adopted daughter, to get their side of the story. The adopted daughter did not respond to Relevo’s messages and calls.
Legal doubts in the adoption process
It was a unique adoption: the age difference between them was 46 years. The law states that the maximum difference between an adoptee and an adoptive parent is 45 years, although some flexibility is usually allowed. in cases of adoption by adults.
Adoption also has a number of legal requirements, including acceptance by all parties, including the adoptee’s biological parents. Victoria’s adoption papers do not record a final signature by either her or Bajamontes. Various requests to the court always received the same answer: not a single document or any phonogram was found on the basis of which one could conclude about the presence of Victoria and Federico. sign documents on the day they are called to do so by the judge.
She acted in the last years of the cyclist’s life, and also at the time of his death, as a descendant, despite the absence of that mutual agreement, which is not found in any record. Bahamontes and her adopted daughter were scheduled to appear in court on May 16, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. to approve the adoption in front of a judge, but no one showed up that day. There is a document dated February 2019, titled “Adoption Proposal” and signed by Bajamontes, in which the cycling legend assures: “I have a father-son relationship with an adoptive parent (the legal term for adoption in progress) that dates back to 1996 to the present.” Although there is no document confirming that it was ratified by the judge, The adoption was made official in June 2019, when Victoria Sahagún became Bajamontes’ daughter for all legal reasons.
The law also requires living in the same house for at least one year, and there are doubts that this happened.. As a final curiosity, The main character of this story never took the cyclist’s last name. – said Sahagun, although this is common for this kind of process.
Moving from Bajamontes to Valladolid, a key point
Bahamontes met Victoria in 1996 when she was a flight attendant for Peña Bahamontes and they have been in a relationship ever since. In her adoption papers, Victoria Sahagún claims that they had a father-daughter relationship since 1996 and that she lived in the Bajamontes family home in Toledo. questionPeople close to Federico, including his friend and secretary general Peña Bajamontes Faustino Suarez, doubt that this is true.since they believe that while Fermina was alive, no one could live in this house except the couple. Victoria Sahagun assured during the adoption proceedings that she could provide “timely evidence” that she was living at this address.
Bajamontes lived almost his entire life in Toledo, where he was a prominent figure, but he spent the last three years, starting in 2020, in a rural hotel in Villanueva de San Mancio, Valladolid.owned by Victoria Sahagun and her mother. The history of the biological daughters, present in the lawsuit, which Relevo had access to, assures that they tried to maintain contact and care for their father in those last years of his life, but came face to face with an anomalous situation. His daughters’ calls often went unanswered, and the health problems he encountered along the way (he was a nine-year-old male) were always kept to a minimum. or even hidden by the cyclist’s new family when his daughter received a phone call, according to the plaintiffs. Victoria’s biological daughters learned about Victoria’s adoption during a visit to a hospital in Valladolid in August 2021..
Medical reports from those years, to which Relevo also had access, indicate a deterioration in the cyclist’s cognitive functions and even episodes of delirium.a mental state in which a person is confused and has a reduced perception of his surroundings. His story also includes a stroke and micro-infarctions, which casts doubt on the legend’s competence. In this context, an adoption was made, as well as a number of changes to the will. who ultimately disinherited the cyclist’s two biological daughters.
It is known both from journalistic information and from the personal experience of the main characters that Federico and Victoria’s relationship changed over time. At first she was treated as an employee, then as a teacher, and only at the very end she was treated as a daughter.
Maria Angelica and Maria Victoria, the biological daughters, had to fight to be admitted to the hospital in August 2021, they said. Bajamontes was hospitalized with a hematoma of the psoas muscle. These were times marked by Covid restrictions and When both demanded to be allowed to see their father and Victoria Sahagun was denied entry, that’s when they realized that legally she was also the daughter of a cyclist.. It was she who organized the funeral and tribute to the death of Bajamontes, she even tried to prevent her sisters from appearing there, always according to the twins. They had a relationship with their father during his lifetime, although they could not enter his house in Toledo until the death of Fermina, the cyclist’s wife and from whom the cyclist had no descendants.
The Seven Testaments of Bahamon
Recently, Victoria gained access to the so-called power of destruction – a legal document with which she could manage the accounts and property of cyclists.. In a lawsuit filed by the daughters, to which Relevo had access, they indicate that these powers were “used to misrepresent the property” of Martin Bajamontes.
During his life, Federico wrote seven wills. The first of them in 1960.a year after becoming Tour champion. For this purpose, she returned to the notary only in 2010 with a document that already indicated the existence of two biological daughters (they had not yet been born when the previous one was signed) and indicated that they were the universal heirs of their father.
In 2013, the third document was signed with virtually no changes. All this will start to change in 2017. This year, two new wills of the cyclist were signed, in which Victoria Sahagun was already named as executor.. At that time, she already had a power of attorney, according to which she had access to the cyclist’s accounts and property, but the adoption did not take place and, therefore, she did not appear among the heirs until two years later. Fermina died in August 2018 and the adoption began the following January..
Already in 2020, the next will came, the sixth. In it, Federico appoints Victoria Sahagún as the universal heir and removes his biological daughters from her.. Spanish law generally does not allow children to be disinherited, but The last two wills of Bajamontes indicate that Maria Angelica and Maria Victoria have already received in life what is legally due to them.. This document states that they received a loan of 1,225,000 euros. In the last will of 2022, this clause is changed and it is stated that this loan is considered a donation.
The cyclist’s biological daughters sued Victoria in civil proceedingssince Spanish law states that with first-degree family ties, criminality is not possible, and currently, unless the judges find the adoption invalid because it does not meet the requirements, they are essentially sisters.
This action fell on the trial court No. 1 of Toledo, but the judge restrained himself, finding that his jurisdiction was not conducive to it and that the case should be transferred to the court No. 3, where the case was developed. adoption and therefore the person competent to carry out such investigations. Protecting the cyclist’s illegitimate daughters also required unprecedented precautions, known as extreme precautions. realizing that delaying the decision could cause irreparable damage to the heirs. Moreover, they understand that this damage is already happening, as they suspect that several objects have changed their names during this time. The court, despite everything, did not make a decision on this issue.
The key to this whole matter is the validity or otherwise of the adoption. If, as the biological daughters claim, it was done incorrectly, This would mean that Victoria is not Federico’s daughter, and therefore wills naming her as heir would also be invalid. The legal figure they are clinging to is a fraud, meaning they understand that this is all based on Federico’s deception.
The legacy left by Martin Bajamontes is completely unknown. although the list being managed includes accounts at Banco Santander, funds at Bankia and BBVA, life insurance, two parking spaces, as well as personal items such as orn Dali’s drawing of a cyclist or cyclist’s bicycles.