MIAMI — Families of victims of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 last year, have reached a $997 million settlement to compensate them for their staggering losses of life.
The settlement, revealed during a court hearing on Wednesday and still pending final approval, includes insurance companies, developers of an adjacent building and other defendants in the expanded civil case. It comes six weeks before the tragedy’s first anniversary on June 24.
“I am shocked by this result — I think it’s fantastic,” said Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Michael A. Hanzman. “This is a recovery that goes way beyond what I expected.”
Before Wednesday’s surprise announcement, the judge had approved a much smaller $83 million settlement to distribute to condominium owners for their property losses. No compensation had been established for the families of the dead, who would now receive the $997 million.
“It represents a lot of money, but it will never bring Jonah’s mother back,” said Neil Handler, whose son was one of the few people rescued alive from the rubble. Jonah Handler’s mother, Stacie Fang, 54, was the first victim identified in the collapse.
“No one can handle what I went through on Mother’s Day last Sunday — that’s not something that money will ever replace for him,” Mr. Handler said of his son, who is now 16 and has broken many bones in his back. †
How the money will be distributed among the relatives of the 98 victims will be determined in the coming weeks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is still investigating why the 13-story, 135-unit building partially collapsed in the middle of the night, an assessment that could take years.
The differing compensation for families of victims who lost loved ones and survivors who lost apartments sparked significant friction between the groups and raw, emotional testimony from the court during a March hearing in which the two sides came up against each other.
“We know we didn’t cause that collapse,” Oren Cytrynbaum, a unit owner, said at the time. “A billion dollars, if I were on the other side, wouldn’t bring those loved ones back.”
Funding for the $83 million for the owners of the units will come from the insurers of Champlain Towers South and the sale of the land where the building stood at 8777 Collins Ave. at least $120 million.
As part of their earlier settlement, the apartment owners were released from any liability for negligence in the maintenance of the building. Under Florida law, they could have been charged up to the value of their units.
A settlement initially seemed unlikely. The families of some victims believed that all money recovered through the lawsuit should go to them, and nothing to the unit owners. Judge Hanzman disagreed, saying unit owners should rebuild their lives after their massive economic losses. The portion of the building that did not collapse was demolished in the days following the tragedy, with the owners of the units never able to return.
Judge Hanzman approved that $83 million settlement in March, with no guarantee that more money would follow for the victims’ families — and the possibility of a long, drawn-out lawsuit that could take years, like many class action cases do. .
The much larger settlement for the victims’ families, made public on Wednesday, came after the developers of the adjacent luxury building, Eighty Seven Park, and a slew of contractors and consultants who were charged or investigated by the victims’ lawyers. had signed up. The plaintiffs had argued that construction work at Eighty Seven Park damaged Champlain Towers South – an allegation that the developers and contractors of Eighty Seven Park denied.
Lawyers said the settlement for the victims’ families could be expanded further, to about $1 billion, if they reach an agreement with a surviving company. Among the companies that agreed to settle were the engineers who had inspected before the collapse and began work to address serious structural defects in Champlain Towers South.
As part of the settlement, the companies will not admit to wrongdoing. But Judd G. Rosen, one of the attorneys for the victims’ families who didn’t own apartments, said the settlement numbers “speak for themselves.”
“It is a step in the right direction to give them a sense of dignity and responsibility for what happened,” he said of the victims’ families. “A billion dollars is not paid without some sense of responsibility for this loss.”
In all, the total amount recovered for both the families of the victims and the survivors could exceed $1.1 billion.
Judge Hanzman said he wants to finalize the settlement by June 24 and compensate the survivors and the families of the victims by the fall.
Susana Alvarez, 62, a survivor of the collapse, said she and other unit owners did not receive any information about when they would actually receive that money.
“Many of us have to buy houses; we’re literally living with relatives,” she said, adding that she just wanted to get on with that horrific day.
“I’m alive, thank God,” she said. “We just want to have peace.”
Pablo Rodriguez, who lost his mother, Elena Blasser, 64, and grandmother, Elena Chavez, 88, in the collapse, said he had mixed feelings about the settlement.
“I think this is the best result we could hope for given the situation,” said Mr Rodriguez, although “there is really no amount of money that makes up for everything.”
Almost a year later, Mr. Rodriguez, 41, that the death of his loved ones still feels surreal and oppressive.
“That video of the building collapsing,” he said, “it still wakes me up at night.”