A Landfill is dug up by a Judge to end a man’s 11-year quest to recover $765 million in Bitcoin
Since 2013, James Howells hopes to recover the hard drive of his laptop that, according to him, contains the private key to cryptocurrency that he claims he mined back in 2009. Howells claims to have lost 8,000 bitcoins. The bitcoin price exceeded $100,000 last month and was $95,636 as of last Friday, or $765 million for 8,000 bitcoins.
High Court judge Keyser KC issued his ruling last week, siding with the defendant in Howells v. Newport City Council. Howells’ chances of winning at trial are slim, according to the judge. Howells sought “an order that the defendant either deliver the hard drive or allow his team of experts to excavate the landfill in order to find it, and (in the alternative) compensation equivalent to the value of the Bitcoin that he can no longer access.”
Landfill Authority Owns the Trash
The council said that excavating the landfill site would let harmful substances escape into the environment, endangering residents with “potentially serious risks which raises public health issues and environmental concerns,” the ruling said.
The judge found no “reasonable grounds for bringing this case,” saying it has “no realistic prospect of succeeding if it went to trial and that there is no other compelling reason why it should be disposed of at trial.” He granted summary judgment for the defendant, dismissing the claim.
The ruling quotes the Control of Pollution Act 1974, which states that “anything delivered to the authority by another person in the course of using the facilities shall belong to the authority and may be dealt with accordingly.” Howells “submitted that section 14(6)(c) merely says that anything so delivered shall belong to the authority but does not say that it shall cease to belong to its former owner,” the ruling said. The judge disagreed, writing that “the words ‘shall belong to the authority’ are unqualified and unrestricted.”
The judge found no reason to determine that the defendant retaining the hard drive is “unconscionable” under the law. In my opinion, there is no realistic chance that the Hard Drive would be found to be unconscionable by the court. It was retaining it because it was buried in landfill,” the ruling said. It was retaining it because it was buried in landfill,” the ruling said.
Statute of Limitations
The claim is also barred by the six-year statute of limitations because Howells “knew the facts material to his claim by November 2013 but did not commence proceedings until May 2024,” the ruling said.
The judge didn’t need to rule on whether the hard drive really contains access to bitcoin, saying that “the only relevant issues in this case concern ownership of, and rights of access to, the Hard Drive.” Howells sought access to the landfill site in Newport, Wales, starting in November 2013, but local officials refused. He claims the hard drive measures 2 1/2 inches and contains a wallet.dat that has a private key to enable access to bitcoin.
