Salesman sues after rupturing biceps moving his hot tub
A SALES executive who claims he was badly injured carrying a hot tub into his garden is suing for £200,000.
Darren Berryman, 49, says he had his biceps ripped from his elbow joints while trying to help delivery men carry the outdoor bath at his £500,000 home.
The glazing sales boss says there was a “pop” and he felt immediate agony before being taken to hospital in February 2020.
Mr Berrymen states delivery men for Bedfordshire Hot Tubs suddenly dropped the item without warning, leaving him holding it on his own.
Jacuzzi
But the Dunstable-based company, whose Jacuzzi-style tubs can sell for up to £23,000 and can weigh 63st, do not accept that any negligence caused injury to him.
Documents filed at the High Court by Mr Berryman, from Redbourn, near St Albans, Herts, state: “He was assisting the defendant’s operatives to lower the hot tub from the trolley.
“When it was about six inches from the ground, the defendant’s operatives released hold of the hot tub to let it drop. But none of the defendant’s operatives informed Mr Berryman that they were going to let go and he was left holding the full weight of the hot tub on his hands and flexed elbows.
“He heard a pop sound and suffered pain in both arms. He was subsequently found at hospital to have suffered a distal rupture of the biceps of both arms.”
Mr Berryman, a former plumber and builder turned senior sales manager for a major glazing company, says he suffered “loss, damage and considerable inconvenience” as a result.
His lawyers insist the delivery men were negligent in failing to warn him of the “risk of injury” if he helped them unload it.
And it is claimed they were also negligent in allowing him to help when he was not trained or qualified to do so and should have used an air balloon to safely lower it to the ground rather than dropping it.
But Bedfordshire Hot Tubs, in its defence, said: “No admissions are made as to the happening, facts or circumstances of the alleged accident.
Accident
“The claimant is put to strict proof as to the nature, timing and occurrence of the circumstance surrounding the accident and the injury as alleged.
“No admissions are made as to causation, nature or extent of the claimant’s alleged personal injury, loss and damage.”
The action has not yet gone before a judge.