MIAMI — Surfside commissioners voted Monday to approve a $2 million insurance settlement in the class-action lawsuit related to the Champlain Towers South condo collapse.
It was part of the nearly $1 billion tentative settlement that parties ranging from the security company contracted at the Champlain Towers to the developers of a Miami Beach condo building next door agreed to pay the survivors and families of victims.
Surfside commissioners gathered for a rare morning meeting in the near-empty commission chambers and voted 5-0 for the town’s insurance company to pay the maximum policy limit to the survivors and relatives of those who died in the collapse.
The former 12-story beachfront condo at 8777 Collins Ave. partially collapsed June 24, killing 98 people. The town said it was never formally sued but had received numerous notices from parties intending to sue.
Its insurance carrier, The Florida Municipal Insurance Trust, proposed settling out of court to avoid litigation, said Eric Hockman, an attorney for the town.
“That was an insurance company decision,” Hockman said after the meeting. “But the town has the right to accept or reject the insurance company’s decision.”
Surfside was threatened with potential lawsuits for negligence related to the conditions of Champlain Towers South and statements by a former building official. The ex-official, Ross Prieto, told Champlain residents that the condo was “in very good shape” a month after an engineering report flagged “major structural damage” in the building, according to minutes from a November 2018 board meeting.
The formal notices threatening legal action, obtained by the Herald, also include more general allegations that the town failed to properly inspect the building or evacuate residents. They were sent to the town on behalf of relatives of the victims of the collapse.
Prieto declined to comment Monday afternoon. His attorney, former Surfside Vice Mayor Daniel Gielchinsky, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview with the Herald last summer, Prieto said he did not recall receiving the engineering report and declined to comment on the board meeting.
The vote approving the settlement is not an admission of fault or liability from the town, Hockman said. The settlement still needs to be approved by Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman, who is overseeing the class-action lawsuit.
Mayor Shlomo Danzinger told the Herald the settlement was an “act of good will” from the town and hoped it could help the families of those who died in the collapse.
“Our insurance was willing to pay it out, and we said yes because we want to contribute as much as we can,” he said.
Danzinger, a political newcomer elected to his first term in March, said he couldn’t comment on whether any previous town officials acted improperly because he was not involved in the local government at the time. But he stressed that none of the potential legal claims ever came to fruition.
“I don’t know whose fault it is,” he told the Herald. “I think we’ll find that out. I’m not going to say it was negligence. There were accusations of that.”
It remained unclear whether the settlement would impact the ongoing town investigation of the cause of the collapse. The town’s consulting engineer, Allyn Kilsheimer, has been participating in a court-sanctioned inspection along with other parties.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is leading a separate federal investigation of the collapse, although its report may not be released for years.
Town Attorney Lillian Arango told commissioners that the town hoped to continue its on-site investigation and would discuss the issue with the receiver for the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, Michael Goldberg, who has legal custody over the property.
“We’ll have to work out those details in the coming days,” Arango said.
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(Miami Herald staff writer Aaron Leibowitz contributed to this report.)
