Li Yaohong lost her entire family in a car accident in March. Now she could lose everything they left behind.

The 33-year-old is embroiled in a legal battle to claim the assets and savings her sister and brother-in-law had built up, a total of almost 3 million yuan ($470,000), before their tragic death in Heilongjiang province.

According to a loophole in the law, the sum will instead go into government coffers because Li's 6-year-old niece, who was traveling in the same car at the time of the accident, survived her parents by just a few hours.