According to a lawsuit, 200 fossils that are around 380 million years old are currently buried in a landfill because the institution in New Jersey that was responsible for delivering them failed to pay the delivery fee.
For allegedly losing Devonian Age marine invertebrate fossils that were once transported via glacier for several million years and ended up in the “High Mountain” area of Wayne, which is a few miles from the school, Professor Martin Becker is suing William Paterson University, his employer, the mail room supervisor, and others.
Becker used the fossils as part of his curriculum and spent almost twenty years gathering them.
According to the lawsuit, “the fossils and the way they were transported to the High Mountain Area are extremely unique and valuable.”
In an attempt to ship the fossils out, Becker, working with a professor in Florida, packed them into 19 packages weighing 20 to 60 pounds on June 18 and took them to the university mail facility.
According to the lawsuit, he handed the items to Raymond Boone, the mail room supervisor, who promised that UPS would send them off.
Boone allegedly promised to provide Becker with the insurance details and shipping tracking number. They were picked up the same day by UPS.
However, the lawsuit claimed that after a few weeks, the Florida professor informed Becker that he had never received them. When Becker phoned Boone on August 14, he gave him the tracking number.
Becker found out that the items were still waiting to be delivered in New Jersey.
According to the lawsuit, Boone told Becker he was “working on the issue” when the fossils still hadn’t arrived by the end of August. On September 30, Becker allegedly got in touch with UPS personally.
Southern California’s Drug Trafficking Ring Shut Down in Major Operation
UPS apparently informed the professor that the school’s account had been canceled because William Peterson had not paid the shipping company’s fees, thus its fraud department “intercepted/confiscated” the goods.
According to the lawsuit, “Our client learned that the packages were dumped at an unidentified landfill somewhere in or around Nashville, Tennessee.”
According to Becker’s attorneys, Boone was aware of UPS’s cancellation of the school’s account as early as early July 2024.
Becker is suing Boone and the school for negligence and is requesting an undisclosed sum of money. He brought the case before the Passaic County Superior Court earlier this month.
Leave a Comment