Professor sues William Paterson University after priceless, rare fossils were dumped in a landfill
An environmental science professor and paleontologist has spent his career collecting Devonian Age marine invertebrate fossils that are 380 million years old.
A William Paterson University professor says school officials lost his rare fossil collection and that the artifacts were dumped in a landfill. Now he’s suing.
Martin Becker, an environmental science professor and paleontologist, has spent his career collecting Devonian Age marine invertebrate fossils, or ancient sea creatures that are about 380 million years old.
In June 2024, he packaged 200 of his fossils, making up 80% of his collection, in 19 boxes and brought them to the university’s mail room to be shipped to a colleague in Florida. But Becker says negligence from the university and mail room supervisor Raymond Boone resulted in the “destruction of his life’s work” and emotional distress.
The lawsuit, which was filed last week in Superior Court in Passaic County, says Boone repeatedly gave Becker the runaround, promising tracking updates.
Over the course of several months, Becker confirmed with his Florida colleague that the packages still hadn’t arrived, pushing the professor to follow up with Boone for more information. More than two months after Becker dropped the packages off, Boone repeatedly told the professor he was “working on the issue” with UPS. Come September, Boone told Becker the fossils were possibly caught up in the UPS fraud department but that he was “working on the issue.”
Becker pursued UPS himself.
On Sept. 30, Becker said he learned that UPS’ fraud department intercepted and confiscated the packages because the university had failed to pay multiple invoices to keep their UPS account in good standing. The lawsuit says the university’s UPS account had been canceled as a result and the fossils were pitched.
Though details are scarce, the lawsuit says the packages were dumped at an “unidentified landfill somewhere in or around Nashville, Tennessee.” The suit says Boone knew about the university’s UPS account delinquency but accepted Becker’s shipment anyway, citing notices sent from UPS to the university and the confiscation of additional packages.
Becker said the fossils were irreplaceable and the subject of academic papers, grants, and student research programs. The lawsuit also claims that despite the university’s knowledge of what went wrong, Boone retained his role as mailroom supervisor, proving negligence in its supervision of an employee.
The university’s website shows Boone and Becker are both current employees at William Paterson.
Becker is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and lawsuit costs. He says the loss of the packages has brought on emotional distress, prompting medical expenses.
Becker and Boone did not respond to requests for comment. William Paterson officials declined to comment. In a statement to NorthJersey.com, a William Paterson spokesperson said the university wasn’t aware of the lawsuit.