Throw away 1 trillion won of Bitcoin..."Let's search the garbage dump" lawsuit.

Photo Source: Yonhap News

The BBC reported on the 3rd local time that local councils and owners are fighting in court over whether to excavate more than 1 trillion won worth of bitcoin on a hard drive abandoned in a landfill in the UK.

According to the report, James Howells claimed that a partner's mistake in 2013 dumped a digital wallet containing bitcoin worth 600 million pounds (about 1.75 trillion won) at its present value in a Doxway landfill along with a hard disk drive.

Howells is working on a landfill excavation to find it, but has begun proceedings in the face of opposition from the city council.

Howells is asking the city council to grant access to the landfill or pay 495 million pounds (about 885.8 billion won) in compensation.

However, the Newport City Council filed a hearing with the High Court on whether to bring the landfill to formal trial, saying it was "not obligated" to excavate it at Howells' request because the items in the landfill were owned by local authorities.

The Newport City Council asked in Cardiff to dismiss Howells' claim to file a lawsuit against the City Council.

Howells also made an offer to donate 10% of the abandoned Bitcoin to the community, which the city council claimed amounted to a bribery attempt.

James Goody, an attorney for the City Council, said no one was above the law and stressed that the council was not obligated to arbitrate claims that were detrimental to the public interest only by moving in accordance with the law.

In response, Howells' lawyer, Dean Armstrong, dismissed the City Council's remarks on the attempted bribe as unfortunate and pointless expressions, arguing Howells has the right to access the landfill for bitcoin recovery.

Armstrong explained that finding a hard drive in a landfill is not like finding a needle in a haystack, and that the excavation plan was based on considerable expertise.

He said he should be wary of causing severe unfairness to Howells by preventing him from going to trial and called for clarification of ownership of Bitcoin.

The announcement of the hearing results has been delayed as the judge in charge has postponed the decision.