In Howells v Newport City Council [2025] EWHC 22 (Ch), the Council has succeeded in having the claim against it as waste authority dismissed. The case concerned a hard drive that the Claimant said contained the private key to his Bitcoin, now allegedly worth in excess of £600 million. He said that the hard drive had been deposited in error at the Council’s landfill site and that without the hard drive and the private key he was unable to access the Bitcoin. He wanted the landfill to be excavated in order possibly to find the hard drive in suitable condition. The Council consistently refused.
The High Court in Cardiff has held that the Council were fully entitled to do so. The Council had become the owner of the hard drive and lawfully controlled access to it. The claimant had no right to have it or to gain access to it. That was because of Section 14(6)(c) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974. Anything delivered to an authority’s landfill “shall belong” to the authority and may be dealt with accordingly. This was “unqualified and unrestricted”. There was no implied limitation on it. Restitutionary, proprietary and constructive trust claims were misguided. The Council had regard to its wider responsibilities in relation to the landfill and the impacts of excavation on its residents.
James Goudie KC was Leading Counsel for Newport City Council.
The Judgment is here.
The case has been covered by BBC News, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, LBC and South Wales Argus.
