A Professor at William Paterson University filed a lawsuit against the school last week claiming that WPU’s negligence led to his 380-million-year-old fossils collection being lost. The fossils ended up in a Nashville, Tennessee landfill after being sent down to Florida for review.
Martin Becker, a Paleontologist and WPU Professor, was working on a collaboration to build a comprehensive monograph of his fossil collection.
The lawsuit stated that Becker spent “hundreds upon hundreds of hours” collecting the fossils, which belong mostly to marine invertebrates, from the nearby High Mountain area of Wayne. To move forward with the monograph, Becker needed to ship the fossils to a colleague in Florida.
On June 18, Becker packed 19 boxes, about 80% of his collection, and brought them to the university mailroom. Mailroom supervisor Raymond Boone, a defendant in the suit, received them.
UPS picked up the packages the same day. Boone told Becker he would get tracking and insurance details, but Becker says he never did.
Weeks later, a colleague in Florida told Becker the fossils never arrived. After two calls to the mailroom, Becker got tracking details on Aug. 20, showing the packages were in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Over the next month, Becker repeatedly asked Boone for updates. Boone said he was “working on the issue,” according to the suit.
On September 20, Boone told Becker the fossils might be in UPS’s fraud department. Becker contacted UPS on September 30 and learned the packages were seized because the university had unpaid invoices, leading to a canceled account.
Becker later found out the fossils were discarded at a landfill near Nashville, Tennessee, the suit says.
The university’s UPS account had been canceled in April. The lawsuit alleges Boone knew this since July and that other shipments were also seized.
Becker is seeking damages for the lost fossils and emotional distress.
Boone declined to comment. Becker and the university did not immediately respond.
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