TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - A man who discovered a murdered coworker in the bed next to him can’t win money from Wyndham Hotels for his emotional suffering, a New Jersey court ruled, upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit stemming from a bizarre incident involving transient utility workers.
Richard Sperazza sued Wyndham Worldwide after making the gruesome discovery in his room at the Wingate Hotel in Vineland in October 2016. Sperazza was sharing a room with Ivan Scott Strayer while the men worked on utility pole foundations in New Jersey. Also in the crew were brothers Charles and Larry Pulcine.
On the night of Oct. 10, 2016, Sperazza and Strayer ate at Bennigan’s Restaurant, with Strayer leaving early. Sperazza returned to the restaurant, saw the TV on and Strayer apparently asleep in his bed, then went up to the Pulcine brothers’ room to drink beer until 11:30 p.m., returning to see the TV was off and Strayer still in bed. The next morning Sperrazza discovered Strayer was actually dead, shot several times with a .40 caliber pistol.
Larry Pulcine ultimately was convicted and sentenced to prison for murdering Strayer in a trial where jurors heard Pulcine’s clothes and pistol were found in the woods outside the hotel. No motive was given to explain the killing, although Pulcine’s lawyer argued police found Satanic symbols on Sperazza’s phones and crack pipes in his possession, suggesting he was the culprit.
Sperazza sued Wyndham, along with Strayer’s widow. But the widow settled, a trial court dismissed the remaining claims and the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, affirmed the dismissal in a Dec. 19 per curiam decision.
Sperazza argued he was entitled to compensation for witnessing the dead body because the hotel gave an extra key to a coworker and evidence showed that key was used to enter the room the night of the killing. No such luck, the appeals court ruled; under New Jersey law, he needed to prove he was in the “zone of danger” to prove bystander injury when he was actually upstairs drinking with the murderer’s brother when the crime was committed.
“As the record shows, plaintiff was not present when Strayer was murdered, plaintiff did not encounter the murderer in his hotel room, Strayer's body was `ice cold’ when plaintiff touched it, and plaintiff was not even aware that Strayer had been murdered until he was so advised by investigating officers later in the day,” the appeals court ruled.
Justin Lee Klein represented the plaintiff, while Wyndham was represented by Riker Danzig LLP and Golden, Rothschild, Spagnola, Lundell, Boylan, Garubo & Bell.