509, was a 1945 English legal case decided in the King's Bench Division of the High Court.
The court held that the owner of the locus in quo does not have a superior right to possession over the finder of lost property that is unattached to the land.
[1] The defendant, Major Hugh E. E. Peel, owned Gwernhaylod House, Overton-on-Dee, Shropshire.
He bought it in December 1938, but did not move in, and shortly after the Second World War broke out, the house was requisitioned for military use.
In August 1940, the plaintiff, Lance-Corporal Duncan Hannah of the Royal Artillery, was staying in the house on army business.