A French woman went to court this week in Lyon to prove to the government that she is actually alive in a three-year battle after she was mistakenly declared dead, reports Forbes.
The ruling turned 58-year-old Jeanne Pouchain’s life upside-down. After she was officially declared dead, she lost her ID card, driver's license, bank account and health insurance.
The story started when Pouchain was running a cleaning company and dismissed one of her employees in 2000.
That employee took out a case against the cleaning company and a 2004 labor tribunal ordered Pouchain to pay the woman over 14,000 euros ($17,000). However, the ruling was not enforced because it was against the company and not Pouchain herself.
The employee then tried to sue Pouchain directly in 2009 for unfair dismissal through the French employment tribunal system called Prud'hommes. The employee, who was unavailable for comment, lost her claim.
In 2016, the claim went back to the law courts on appeal and this time, after the judge was told Pouchain was dead, they ordered her husband and son to pay damages on her behalf–Pouchain believes that the former employee fabricated her death to win damages by suing her ‘beneficiaries’.
"The complainant affirmed that Mrs. Pouchain was dead, without proof, and everyone believed her. Nobody checked anything," said Pouchain’s lawyer, Sylvain Cormier.