A New Jersey professor has filed a lawsuit against William Paterson University, alleging that the school’s failure to pay outstanding UPS invoices led to the disposal of 380-million-year-old fossils in a Tennessee landfill.
Martin Becker, a professor of environmental science and a paleontologist at the university, spent years collecting Devonian-age marine invertebrate fossils from the High Mountain area of Wayne, New Jersey. According to the lawsuit filed in Passaic County Superior Court last week, Becker had intended to collaborate with a colleague in Florida on a research monograph using his fossil collection.
On June 18, Becker packaged approximately 200 fossils—about 80% of his collection—into 19 boxes, each weighing between 20 and 60 pounds. He delivered them to the university’s mailroom, where mailroom supervisor Raymond Boone, also named in the lawsuit, received them. The packages were then picked up by UPS.
Becker claims he never received tracking or insurance details, despite being assured he would. Weeks later, after his colleague reported that the fossils had not arrived, Becker contacted the mailroom multiple times. On August 20, he finally received tracking information, which showed the packages were held in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Over the next month, Boone repeatedly assured Becker he was working on the issue. However, on September 30, Becker contacted UPS directly and discovered that the shipments had been intercepted and ultimately discarded in a landfill near Nashville, Tennessee. UPS had canceled William Paterson University’s account in April due to unpaid invoices, a fact Boone allegedly knew by July but did not disclose.
Becker is seeking damages for the loss of the fossils and medical expenses for emotional distress caused by the incident. Neither the university nor Boone has commented on the lawsuit.