Victims of the collapsed building in Miami will receive 997 million dollars to close the case

The victims of the building that collapsed in 2021 in surf sideFlorida (USA), which caused the death of almost a hundred people, reached an agreement of 997 million dollars to close the case, local media reported on Wednesday.

The judge in charge of the case, Miami-Dade County Magistrate Michael Hanzman, determined that the distribution of the money agreed with insurers and defendants will be determined based on the participation that each one had in the building that partially collapsed in the early hours of 24 June 2021, killing 98 people.

LOOK: The desperate calls to 911 after the collapse in Miami: “Help, please, there was an earthquake!”

“We’ve got $997 million in proposed deals before you, and it could be $1 billion before the end of the week.”, said Harley S. Tropin, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, in statements collected by the Miami Herald newspaper.

Previously, Judge Hanzman had said that there is not enough money that can adequately compensate for human losses, although Tropin indicated that now, at least, the victims and relatives of the deceased will have “some degree of relief.”

Aerial view of partially collapsed 12-story condominium building in Surfside, Florida, USA. (EFE / EPA / CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH).

“The result achieved and the speed are more than extraordinary”highlighted the magistrate on the effective closure of the litigation phase of the case of this landslide, whose causes are still under investigation.

The building built in 1981 was in the middle of a process known as “recertification”, which consists of a review of the structures and electrical installations required by law as it is a 40-year-old building.

Three years earlier, a report by an engineering firm warned of serious structural problems in the building that deserved urgent attention.

Ninety-eight people died from the collapsewhich despite being partial, left the building uninhabitable, completely demolished on July 4, 2021.

Last February, the lawyers of the apartment owners of the collapsed building reached a “tentative” agreement by which they will distribute 83 million dollars among those who lost their homes.

That agreement has no effect on wrongful death lawsuits brought by the families of the 98 people who died in the collapse.

Source: Elcomercio