MIAMI — With the milestone of a $1 billion settlement behind them, relatives of the 98 people who died in the Surfside condominium building’s collapse have begun private hearings this week with a Miami-Dade judge who will calculate each victim’s monetary value — a process partly guided by actuarial equations but also fraught with painful emotions.
While relatives and their lawyers can make the case to Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman that the victims all met the same tragic fate — not unlike the passengers in a plane crash — Florida law dictates that they won’t receive equal shares of the landmark settlement. Inevitably, some will get far more than others.
And under state law, some grieving relatives like brothers and sisters might receive some damages while others could be entitled to little or nothing because of who is considered first in line to qualify for the payouts.
