ST. PETERSBURG — A nearly $1 billion tentative settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit brought by families of victims and survivors of last June’s condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, an attorney said Wednesday.
|
FILE - Rescue personnel work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo, Friday, June 25, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Residents of a five-story apartment building in North Miami Beach have been ordered to evacuate after officials deemed the structure “structurally unsound" during its 50-year recertification process, officials said. The residents were ordered out on Monday, April 4, 2022, by city officials. Its the second building ordered evacuated in the city since the collapse of Champlain Towers South last June in nearby Surfside, which killed 98 people. |
At the time of the collapse, Miami-Dade and Broward were the only two of the state’s 67 counties that had condominium recertification programs.
The main lawsuit,
filed on behalf of Champlain Towers South victims and family
members, contends that work on the adjacent Eighty Seven
Park tower damaged and destabilized the Champlain Towers
building, which was in need of major structural repair.
Champlain Towers was in the midst of its 40-year structural
review when it partially crumbled to the ground.
Video released by a team of federal investigators showed
evidence of extensive corrosion and overcrowded concrete
reinforcement in the building.
Seven months after the
collapse, temporary structural supports were added to areas
in the underground garage of Champlain Towers South’s sister
tower, Champlain Towers North, in what the building’s condo
board called “an abundance of caution.” The condo was built
in 1981 and has a nearly identical design as the Champlain
Towers South.
The little-known enclave of Surfside comprises a mix of
older homes and condos similar to the collapsed tower, built
decades ago for the middle-class, and recently erected
luxury condos drawing the wealthy. That includes former
first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner,
who live about a block north of the collapsed condo. The
residents of Champlain Towers South were an international
mix: South American immigrants, Orthodox Jews and foreign
retirees.