Surfside commission approves $2 million settlement in Champlain Towers South collapse
Surfside commissioners voted Monday to approve a $2 million insurance settlement in the classaction lawsuit related to the Champlain Towers South condo collapse.
It was part of the nearly $1 billion tentative settlement that parties — including a security company and the developers of a condo building next door — agreed to pay the survivors and families of victims.
Surfside commissioners voted 5-0 for the town’s insurance company to pay the maximum policy limit to the survivors and relatives of those who died in the collapse.
The former 12-story beachfront condo at 8777 Collins Ave. partially collapsed June 24, killing 98 people. The town said it was never formally sued but had received notices from parties intending to sue.
Its insurance carrier,
The Florida Municipal Insurance Trust, proposed settling out of court to avoid litigation, said Eric Hockman, an attorney for the town.
“That was an insurancecompany decision,” Hockman said after the meeting. “But the town has the right to accept or reject the insurance company’s decision.”
Surfside was threatened with potential lawsuits for negligence related to the conditions of Champlain Towers South and statements by a former building official. The ex-official, Ross Prieto, told
Champlain residents that the condo was “in very good shape” a month after an engineering report flagged “major structural damage” in the building, according to minutes from a November 2018 board meeting.
The formal notices threatening legal action, obtained by the Miami Herald, also include more general allegations that the town failed to properly inspect the building or evacuate residents. They were sent to the town on behalf of relatives of the victims.
Prieto declined to comment Monday afternoon. His attorney, former Surfside Vice Mayor
Daniel Gielchinsky, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
In an interview with the Herald last summer, Prieto said he did not recall receiving the engineering report.
The vote approving the settlement is not an admission of fault or liability from the town, Hockman said. The settlement still needs to be approved by Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman, who is overseeing the class-action lawsuit.
Mayor Shlomo Danzinger told the Herald the settlement was an “act of good will” from the town.
“Our insurance was willing to pay it out, and we said yes because we want to contribute as much as we can,” he said.
Danzinger, a political newcomer elected to his first term in March, said he couldn’t comment on whether any previous town officials acted improperly because he was not involved in the government at the time. But he stressed that none of the potential legal claims ever came to fruition.
“I don’t know whose
fault it is,” he told the Herald. “I think we’ll find that out. I’m not going to say it was negligence. There were accusations of that.”
It remained unclear whether the settlement would impact the ongoing town investigation of the cause of the collapse. The town’s consulting engineer, Allyn Kilsheimer, has been participating in a court-sanctioned inspection along with other parties.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is leading a separate federal investigation of the collapse, although its report might not be released for years.