According to ABC News, lawyers for the victims of last year’s Surfside apartment collapse announced a $997 million settlement on Wednesday.
During a status meeting in a Florida courtroom, the settlement was revealed, leaving Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman “speechless.” He said, “I’m shocked by this result – I think it’s fantastic. This is a recovery that is far in excess of what I had anticipated.”
Hanzman expects to have everything wrapped up by June 24, the one-year anniversary of the horrific event that claimed the lives of 98 individuals.
“It’s the largest settlement from a single incident in U.S. history,” Judd Rosen, one of the lead attorneys in the class-action lawsuit, said. “The number itself implies significant accountability on what happened.”
Construction on the luxurious high-rise condo Eighty-Seven Park next door, according to the lawsuit, aggravated the Champlain Towers South’s already dismal circumstances. Eighty-seven Park’s owners and insurers have denied any involvement in the collapse.
A letter from CTS board president Jean Wodnicki to the condo’s residents months before the collapse surfaced in the days following the disaster, demonstrating that the condo’s construction had become deteriorated.
“The concrete deterioration is accelerating. The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated,” the letter read.
