A British judge has ruled against a man who wants to excavate a landfill site where he claims hard drives with access to thousands of bitcoins were accidentally dumped more than 11 years ago.
Since 2013, James Howells has wanted to recover his laptop hard drive, which he says contains private keys to cryptocurrencies he allegedly mined in 2009. Als wrote about it, noting that at the time, the value of Bitcoin had just surpassed $1,000. , 7,500 Bitcoins would be worth $7.5 million.
The number of Bitcoins claimed has changed a bit, with Howells now saying he has lost 8,000 Bitcoins. Bitcoin price exceeded $100,000 last month, and as of last Friday, it was $95,636, or $765 million for 8,000 Bitcoins.
High Court Judge Kaiser KC ruled in favor of the defendants last week. Howells v. Newport City Council. The judge ruled that Mr Howells had no realistic chance of success at trial. Mr Howells said: “An order requiring the defendant to hand over the hard drives or allow a team of experts to excavate the landfill and locate them, and (in the alternative) the value of the Bitcoins that the defendants no longer have access to. They asked for “appropriate compensation.” ”
The landfill authority owns the garbage.
The council said in its ruling that excavating the landfill would release hazardous materials into the environment, exposing residents to “a potentially serious risk of causing public health problems and environmental concerns”.
The judge found that there were no “reasonable grounds for bringing this lawsuit'' and that “even if it went to trial, there is no realistic prospect of success, and there is no compelling reason for it to be disposed of in court.'' said. He granted summary judgment against the defendants and dismissed the claims.
The judgment cited the Pollution Control Act 1974, which states that “anything handed over to the authorities by another person while using the premises shall belong to the authorities and may be dealt with accordingly.” It is determined. Mr Howells ruled: “Section 14(6)(c) only states that something so handed over belongs to the authority; it does not say that it ceases to belong to the original owner.” said. The judge disagreed, saying, “The words 'shall belong to the authorities' are neither qualified nor limiting.”
The judge found no reason to find the defendant in possession of the hard drive “unconscionable” under the law. “In my view, there is no realistic prospect of a finding that the defendant's retention of the hard drive was unconscionable. He was not retaining it for profit or with the desire to do so. It was kept in storage because it was buried in a landfill,” the ruling said.
statute of limitations
The claim is barred by the six-year statute of limitations because Howells “knew the facts material to his claim by November 2013 but did not commence litigation until May 2024.” the judgment stated.
The judge did not need to rule on whether the hard drive truly contained access to the bitcoins, stating that “the only relevant issue in this case concerns ownership of and access to the hard drive.'' ” he said. Since November 2013, Howells has sought access to a landfill in Newport, Wales, but local authorities have refused. He said the hard drive is 2.5 inches in size and contains the wallet.dat file, which contains the private key that allows access to Bitcoin.
The council ruled that the excavation was in breach of NRW (Natural Resources Wales) license conditions, posed a risk to the health and safety of staff, posed a risk of damage from ground movement during or after the excavation operation, and that the council's ”, he said.[ing] It will perform statutory waste disposal functions while the site is being excavated. ”
