Collapsed condo case delivers $1bn

MiaMi: Survivors and families of people who died in last year’s collapse of a beachfront condo have reached a settlement of at least $US997m ($1.4bn), a lawyer for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday.

“The settlement right now is $997m. There will be approximately another $100m that we will recover for the victims,” lawyer Carlos Silva said.

Part of Champlain Towers South, a 12-storey building built in 1981 in Surfside, a town north of Miami Beach, came down on June 24, 2021, as dozens of residents slept inside.

Except for a teenager rescued hours after the tower collapsed, search crews found no survivors in the rubble.

A total of 98 people died in the collapse, with the last body identified nearly a month later.

A final report on the collapse has not yet been issued, although preliminary findings showed some of the building’s structure appeared degraded.

The settlement resolves a class action lawsuit against multiple defendants, including the developers of a adjacent building. The suit had claimed that vibrations from work on the adjacent site had contributed to the collapse.