On November 15, 1978, while the plaintiff, Alan George Parker, was waiting as a passenger in the executive lounge at terminal one of London Heathrow Airport he found a gentlemans gold bracelet lying on the floor. This requirement would be met if the trespassing finder acquired no rights. South Staffordshire Water Co. v. Sharmanwas followed and applied by McNair J. inCity of London Corporation v. Appleyard[1963]1W.L.R. I can understand his annoyance. It was held that he was entitled to do so, the ground of the decision being, as was pointed out by Patteson J., that the notes, being dropped in the public part of the shop, were never in the custody of the shopkeeper, or within the protection of his house. It is somewhat strange that there is no more direct authority on the question; but the general principle seems to me to be that where a person has possession of house or land, with a manifest intention to exercise control over it and the things which may be upon or in it, then, if something is found on that land, whether by an employee of the owner or by a stranger, the presumption is that the possession of that thing is in the owner of the locus in quo.. This right would clearly have accrued to the plaintiff had the notes been picked up by him outside the shop of the defendant; and if he once had the right, the case finds that he did not intend, by delivering the notes to the defendant, to waive the title (if any) which he had to them, but they were handed to the defendant merely for the purpose of delivering them to the owner, should he appear. Some qualification has also to be made in the case of the trespassing finder. The defendants did not carry out searches for lost articles. Again, in the interest of clearing the ground, I should like to dispose briefly of some of the other cases to which we were quite rightly referred and to do so upon the grounds that, when analysed, they do not really bear upon the instant problem. 88 concerned money hidden in a flat formerly occupied by a husband and wife who had died. There is no evidence that he was in the executive lounge in the course of any employment or agency and, if he was, the finding of the bracelet was quite clearly collateral thereto. In Johnson v. Pickering[1907]2K.B. A customer picked up the notes and gave them to the shopkeeper in order that he might advertise them. The finder has an obligation to inform the true owner that the item has been found and where it is by whatever means are reasonable in the circumstances.
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