In HOWELLS v NEWPORT CITY COUNCIL [2025] EWHC 22 (Ch) the Claimant said that a hard drive containing the private key to his Bitcoin was deposited in error at a Landfill Site owned and operated by the Council. He said that without the hard drive containing the private key he was unable to access the Bitcoin. He wants the landfill to be excavated in order to find the hard drive. The Council has refused. His claim against the Council failed and was dismissed. Judgment was given for the Council.
The issue was as to the ownership of, and rights of access to, the Claimant’s Hard Drive that went into the Council’s Landfill. The Council’s case, that succeeded, was that it, the Council, owned the Hard Drive, and that the Claimant had no right to have it or to gain access to it. The Judge agreed. This was because the Control of Pollution Act 1974 Section 14(6)(c) provides 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. This was (paras 28, 34 and 37) a “complete answer to the claim”. “Belong” was (para 30) a normal English word. The words “shall belong to the authority” are (para 32) “unqualified and unrestricted”, and the words “and may be dealt with accordingly” are important and confer a “practical right”. The authority is not concerned with the possible existence of competing proprietary interests in the deposited waste.
The Judge added (para 33) that there was no proper basis for implying any limitation into the words of the provision, and every reason for not doing so. The authority’s freedom to deal with items delivered to it as refuse cannot sensibly be contingent on things on which it has no knowledge or control.
A proprietary restitution claim was (paras 39 and 41) “misguided”. An equitable proprietary claim and/or a case based on constructive trust (para 46 and following) had no realistic prospect of success. The Council (para 54) had regard to its own wider responsibilities and the interests of the people of Newport.