$997 Million Settlement for Victims of Surfside Condo Collapse

A settlement has been reached for families of victims in last years tragedy in Surfside, Fla that took the lives of 98 residents of the Champlain Towers South Condominium. This outcome comes almost one year after the collapse and involves victims' families, insurance providers, developers of an adjacent building and other defendants.

The $997 million is in addition to an $83 million settlement that had been previously approved to compensate condo unit owners for property losses.

“I’m shocked by this result — I think it’s fantastic,” said Judge Michael A. Hanzman of the Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County. “This is a recovery that is far in excess of what I had anticipated.”

It still needs to be determined how the money will be dispersed among the relatives of the victims.

“I think it’s the best result that we could hope for given the situation,” said Pablo Rodriguez, though "there’s really no amount of money that makes everything right.”

Rodriguez lost his mother and grandmother in the collapse.

Read full story on The New York Times