James Howells, etched in the history books for accidentally discarding Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), which is worth more than half a billion dollars today, took a major step in retrieving them.

What Happened: In a last-ditch effort, the Wales-based software engineer filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council for roughly 495.31 million British pounds, or about $647 million, in damages for repeatedly denying his request to excavate the landfill site housing the discarded hard drive, which contains around 8,000 units of Bitcoin, as reported by WalesOnline.

Howells explained that the lawsuit is a strategy to convince the council to allow an excavation of its landfill, not a reflection of the actual situation.

See Also: Mark Cuban Questions Trump’s Motive Behind WLFI Token Sale—Former Prez Failed In The ‘Bitcoin IQ Test,’ Says Max Keiser

Howells has assembled a team of specialists to carry out the excavation at no cost to the council. He has also proposed to give the council 10% of the recovered coins’ value.

The case is set for a hearing in December. Newport Council, however, has dismissed the lawsuit as “weak” and expressed concerns over potential environmental impacts of the proposed excavation.

Why It Matters: The bizarre case dates back to 2013 when Howells unintentionally put a hard drive containing 8,000 BTCs in the trash while cleaning his office.

The compensation that Howells sought was the peak valuation of the stash from earlier this year when the leading cryptocurrency spiked to a new all-time high.

As of this writing, 8,000 BTCs are worth $514.37 million, at a market price of $64,296.34 per unit.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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