Florida condo collapse: Victims reach nearly US$1 billion settlement, reports say

Victims of the Surfside, Florida condominium collapse and their families have agreed to a $997 million settlement with insurers and others, the Wall Street Journal and Miami Herald reported on Wednesday.

Nearly 100 people were killed when the 12-story Champlain Towers South near Miami Beach abruptly collapsed in June 2021. Crews searched through rubble for more than a month to recover and identify victims’ remains.

“We have gotten $997 million in proposed settlements before you — and it could be a billion before the end of the week,” Harley Tropin, an attorney representing plaintiffs, told a judge during a hearing on Wednesday, the Herald reported.

3:34 Death toll in Surfside building collapse rises to 64 as 4 more bodies found

We will be done. The money will be distributed. These victims will get some measure of relief,” Tropin said, according to the Herald.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman told both sides he hoped to have the case resolved by the one-year anniversary of the collapse on June 24.

— Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Dan Whitcomb