While sorting through her paperwork, Catherine discovered that she had been married to two different men for 17 years. As reported by our colleagues from La Dépêche du Midi, the 51-year-old Héraultaise had immersed herself in her papers after the death of her 29-year-old son in June 2022. If her current spouse appeared on her marriage certificate, this last one had been replaced by another on the birth certificate. “It is well written there that I got married in 2006, the problem is that it is absolutely not the name of my husband which is written here but that of the mayor who united us” she thus Explain.
“Madam, you know that in our country it is forbidden to be a bigamist” launched an employee of the town hall of Gonesse (Val d’Oise) to Catherine. Because yes, in the eyes of the law, the retiree is legally the wife of the mayor of her municipality. According to the details of a lawyer in the regional daily, the birth certificate is legally more important than the marriage certificate. An administrative blunder could cause inheritance problems: “If anything happens to my husband then I would not have the right to anything since I am not really married to him.”
His situation soon restored
Months have passed and Catherine still can’t find a solution: “The town hall of my birthplace accuses the one where I live in Hérault and vice versa.” For the lawyer who deals with the case, the culprit is all found: “It’s just an error made by the town hall of birth at the time of the transcription of the marriage certificate.” Fortunately, the latter was reassuring, indicating that the fault was “correctable”. The 50-year-old will have to make a request for rectification of an error or omission in a civil act with her town hall of birth. The procedure should take between one and two months before rectification.
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