Collapsed condo case to deliver $1bn to families
MIAMI: Survivors and families of people who died in last year’s collapse of a beachfront condo building near Miami 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 tumbling 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 and soon focused on recovering human remains.
A total of 98 people died in the collapse, with the last body identified nearly a month later.
A final report on the causes of the collapse has not yet been issued, although preliminary findings showed some of the building’s structure appeared degraded.
The settlement, announced on Wednesday in a Miami-Dade County court, resolves a class action lawsuit against multiple defendants, including the developers of a building next to Champlain Towers South. The suit had claimed that vibrations from work on the adjacent site had contributed to the collapse.