Case Brief
Gerard Hutchison
Decker v. The Princeton Packet Inc.
Supreme Court of New Jersey (1989)
FACTS: On February 15th 1985, the defendant (The Princeton Packet, a Delaware Corporation)
had posted a false obituary in their publication verifying the plaintiff (Marcy G. Decker) had
passed away. In the publication it states Marcy had suffered a sudden death at age 31. Exactly
one year later, Marcy Decker along with her son Jackson Decker, and mother Charlotte Goldberg
filed a complaint for libel against the Princeton Packet. Decker made it clear that when the
obituary was posted, she was under “extreme emotional distress” , and the post only aggravated
