The Consequence of Engineer Accidentally Throwing Away 700 Million USD Worth of Bitcoin

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The UK High Court has ruled that engineer James Howells' lawsuit has no reasonable chance of success if brought to trial. The legal debate surrounding the 750 million USD worth of Bitcoin buried in a landfill in Wales has come to an end with James Howells, an engineer living in Newport (Wales), accidentally throwing it away 12 years ago. Accordingly, Judge Keyser KC of the UK High Court ruled that James Howells' lawsuit had no reasonable chance of success if brought to trial. Specifically, the court sided with the city council and dismissed the lawsuit by Mr. Howells, who demanded that the Newport City Council pay 495,314,800 pounds (over $600 million USD) in damages for the lost Bitcoin. Howell's tragedy began in August 2013 when he discovered that his girlfriend had thrown away an old hard drive containing an electronic wallet with bitcoins mined from 2009 to a landfill site of the city council. However, Howells also admitted that he had thrown away the device after cleaning up the office. In the court's ruling, there is an excerpt that accurately recounts what happened according to Howells. This lawsuit faces two major legal obstacles. First, under UK law, anything thrown into the garbage for collection becomes the lawful property of the council. On Monday, Howells' lawsuit violated the 6-year statute of limitations in the United Kingdom. Despite knowing about the lost Bitcoin since 2013, it wasn't until 2024 that Howells decided to sue the council. Despite expressing disappointment with the ruling, Howells once again reiterated his offer to share the 750 million USD worth of Bitcoin with the city council and pledged to donate 10% to the local community. DYOR! #Write2Earn #Write&Earn $BTC {spot}(BTCUSDT)

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