Dance Contestant Files Lawsuit Over Freak Accident In Strip Club

Philadelphia, PA – A woman has filed a lawsuit in city court for injuries she sustained on July 20, 2011, while rehearsing at a strip club for a competition.

Thirty-five-year-old Sarah Berry was practicing for the Ninth Annual Diamond G-String Competition at Delilah’s when she suffered a freak accident. Dancers are permitted to use props like swords, poles, and hula-hoops while flaunting their sex appeal in hopes of winning a $10,000 cash prize. Berry had previously competed in the same contest in 2010.

During rehearsal, a prop Berry was using removed her thumb and required surgery. According to The New York Daily News, the contraption was a “half-moon aerial apparatus” (a crescent-shaped metal bar suspended from the ceiling). The bar allows for dangling and acrobatic poses.

Berry is seeking more than $50,000 in damages for pain and suffering, and disfigurement. She is citing Delilah’s culpability in the malfunction of the equipment. Her argument is the club failed to property construct and inspect the apparatus. Seth Donkochik, a drywall contractor of SD Design, has also been named in the suit.

Neither Seth or the management of Delilah’s have commented on the accident or lawsuit.

James Golkow, Berry’s attorney, disclosed that his client is not a professional exotic dancer and entered the contest by invitation. Berry works as a photographer.

Golkow asserts:

“My client actually studied in school to train on this sort of aerial apparatus, with hopes of performing in Broadway shows and circus acts.”

Injuries and litigation are not uncommon when it comes to strip clubs. Patrick Gallagher filed a lawsuit against the Penthouse Club in Pennsylvania for $50,000 after a November 2010 bachelor party went awry. According to Gallagher’s suit, the unidentified dancer negligently and carelessly slammed her body into the plaintiff with so much force, it resulted in rupturing his bladder.

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