Nearly $1 billion in settlement was agreed upon for the families of the victims of the Surfside condo collapse incident that killed 98 people last year, a decision that brings compensation for the horrific loss of life.
On Wednesday during a court hearing, the settlement was revealed, which is still pending final approval, and includes insurance companies, developers of an adjacent building, and other defendants in the extensive civil case. The decision comes six weeks before the first anniversary of the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse on June 24.
Massive $997 Million Settlement
Judge Michael A. Hanzman of the Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County said that he was surprised by the result, calling it "fantastic." The official said that the settlement was a "recovery" that was far in excess of what he was anticipating.
Before the surprise announcement of the $997 million settlement on Wednesday, the judge had approved a far smaller amount of $83 million. The money would have been split among condo unit owners for their property losses. There was no compensation determined for the families of the dead in the initial proposal, as per the New York Times.
Neil Handler, whose son was only one of the few people who were rescued alive from the rubble of the condo, said that the settlement was a lot of money but argued that it was still not enough to bring his wife back. The victim was identified as 54-year-old Stacie Fang who was the first identified victim of the tragic incident.
Handler said of his son, who was now 16 years old and suffered fractures to several bones in his back, that nobody could deal with what he had experienced last Sunday on Mother's Day. In the coming weeks, authorities will determine how the massive settlement will be divided among the relatives of the 98 victims of the incident.
According to NBC News, the 12-story Champlain Towers South condo suddenly collapsed in the early morning hours of June 24. It almost instantly destroyed dozens of individual condo units and buried victims under tons of rubble. For weeks, rescuers carefully dug through mountains of concrete, at first to find survivors, but later to recover the remains of the people who had lost their lives.
Victims of the Surfside Tower Collapse
The main lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of Champlain Towers South victims and family members, argued that work on the adjacent Eighty Seven Park tower damaged and destabilized the collapsed condo. The Champlain Towers were known to have been in dire need of major structural repair and were in the midst of their 40-year structural review when they collapsed.
It was only on July 26, 2021, when the final victims' remains were identified after a massive search and rescue mission that later became a recovery operation. The people killed in the collapse included young children, elderly couples, families, longtime Surfside residents, and tourists staying in the building.
After the announcement of the settlement in court, Hanzman said that some of the victims of the collapse will never recover from the loss of their loved ones. The judge said that he wanted the entire settlement finalized by the one-year anniversary and have payments made by fall, ABC News reported.
Related Article:
