Families of those killed in last year’s collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Fla., have reached a $997 million settlement to compensate them for their tragic losses.
The settlement, which was announced at a court hearing on Wednesday and is still subject to final approval, includes insurance companies, developers of an adjacent building, and other defendants in the lengthy civil case. It comes six weeks before the first anniversary of the tragedy, which takes place on June 24.
“I’m shocked by this result — I think it’s fantastic,” said Circuit Court Judge Michael A. Hanzman of Miami-Dade County. “This is a far greater recovery than I had anticipated.”
Prior to the surprise announcement on Wednesday, the judge had approved a much smaller settlement of $83 million to be split among condo unit owners for their property losses. There had been no determination of compensation for the families of the deceased, who would now receive the $997 million.
“It’s a lot of money, but it’ll never bring Jonah’s mom back,” said Neil Handler, whose son was one of the few people rescued alive from the rubble. Stacie Fang, Jonah Handler’s mother, was the first victim of the collapse.
“Nobody can deal with what I dealt with last Sunday on Mother’s Day — that’s not something any money can ever replace for him,” Mr. Handler said of his son, who is now 16 and has multiple fractures in his back.
In the coming weeks, it will be decided how the money will be distributed among the 98 victims’ relatives. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is still looking into what caused the 13-story, 135-unit building to partially collapse in the middle of the night, and the investigation could take years.
The disparity in compensation for victims’ families who lost loved ones and survivors who lost condo units caused significant friction between the groups and resulted in raw, emotional court testimony at a March hearing pitting the two sides against each other.
“We know we did not cause that collapse,” unit owner Oren Cytrynbaum said at the time. “If I were on the other side, a billion dollars would not bring those loved ones back.”
The $83 million will be paid to unit owners by Champlain Towers South’s insurers and the sale of the land where the building stood at 8777 Collins Ave. The nearly two acres of beachfront property is expected to sell for at least $120 million after an auction.
The condo owners were released from any liability for negligence in the building’s maintenance as part of an earlier settlement. They could have been sued for up to the value of their units under Florida law.
At first, any agreement appeared improbable. Some victims’ families argued that all proceeds from the lawsuit should go to them and not to the unit owners. Judge Hanzman disagreed, claiming that unit owners had to start over after suffering severe economic losses. The portion of the building that did not collapse was demolished in the days following the disaster, and unit owners were never able to return.
In March, Judge Hanzman approved the $83 million settlement, with no guarantee that more money would be forthcoming for the victims’ families — and the possibility of a long, drawn-out trial that could last years, as many class-action cases do.
The much larger settlement announced on Wednesday for the victims’ families came about after the developers of the adjacent luxury building, Eighty Seven Park, and a slew of contractors and consultants who had been sued or investigated by the victims’ lawyers signed on. The plaintiffs claimed that construction work at Eighty Seven Park harmed Champlain Towers South, which the developers and contractors denied.
According to lawyers, if they reach an agreement with a remaining company, the settlement for the victims’ families could increase to around $1 billion. Engineers who had inspected and begun work to address serious structural flaws in Champlain Towers South prior to the collapse were among the companies that agreed to settle.
As part of the settlement, the companies will not admit wrongdoing. However, Judd G. Rosen, one of the lawyers representing the families of victims who did not own condo units, stated that the settlement figures “speak for themselves.”
“It’s a step in the right direction toward giving them a sense of dignity and accountability for what happened,” he said of the families of the victims. “A billion dollars cannot be paid unless there is some sense of accountability for this loss.”
The total amount recovered for both victims’ families and survivors could exceed $1.1 billion.
Judge Hanzman stated that he hopes to have the settlement finalized by June 24 and to compensate survivors and victims’ families by the fall.
Susana Alvarez, 62, a collapse survivor, said she and other unit owners have received no information about when they will receive their money.
“A lot of us need to buy homes; we’re literally living with relatives,” she explained, adding that all she wanted to do was get past that horrible day.
“Thank God, I’m alive,” she said. “All we want is to be at peace.”
Pablo Rodriguez, who died in the collapse with his mother, Elena Blasser, 64, and grandmother, Elena Chavez, 88, expressed mixed feelings about the settlement.
“I think it’s the best we could hope for given the circumstances,” Mr. Rodriguez said, adding that “there’s really no amount of money that can make everything right.”
Mr. Rodriguez, 41, said the death of his loved ones still feels surreal and haunting almost a year later.
“That video of the building collapsing still wakes me up at night,” he said.