Florida building collapse lawsuits seek answers, blame

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The quest to find out why a Florida condominium collapsed has already moved into the legal system, even before rescuers have finished searching for victims and possible survivors.

Authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the collapse of the Champlain Sud towers by the sea, which killed at least 32 people and left more than 110 missing. At least five lawsuits have been filed by families from Champlain Towers.

The whole world wants to know what happened here, ”Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a press conference on Tuesday. Everyone, she said, wants to know “what could have been avoided and how we make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has pledged to take the case to a grand jury, which will gather evidence and hear testimony, and may recommend criminal charges or necessary reforms.

A lawyer involved in the litigation said the collapse raised widespread concerns about infrastructure issues and the trust placed in those responsible for it.

We deserve to be able to enter buildings without fear of them collapsing around us and knowing that our loved ones can go to bed at night without fear of them collapsing 12 stories below in their sleep, said Jeffrey Goodman, whose Philadelphia-based company filed a lawsuit on behalf of the children of missing resident Harold Rosenberg.

Lawsuits to date accuse the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, and in some cases a local architect and engineer, of negligence for failing to resolve serious structural issues noted as early as 2018. A Surfside Town building inspector was also involved. of the discussions, and the Goodmans Company announced its intention to add the city as a respondent.

The role of building owners, architects, engineers, inspectors and safety professionals is to make sure buildings are safe for their occupants, Goodman said.

At a hearing on Friday, a judge appointed a receiver to represent the interests of the co-owner associations given the trauma experienced by the members of the board of directors, one of whom is still missing. The council has around $ 48 million in insurance coverage, while the beachfront land is valued at between $ 30 million and $ 50 million, the judge was told.

The judge said he hoped the dispute could be resolved quickly, possibly within a year. Until then, he has authorized receiver, attorney Michael Goldberg, to provide residents with $ 10,000 each for temporary accommodation and $ 2,000 to cover funeral costs.

Lawyer Robert Mongeluzzi, who also represents the Rosenberg family and is seeking access to the site, said such cases are not just about money.

They want to make it a quest to find out what happened, Mongeluzzi said. We believe the evidence is still there.

Neither the condominium association board members nor their lawyers responded to emails seeking comment.

An earlier case with possible legal parallels concerns the 2013 collapse in Philadelphia of an unbraced brick wall of a building being demolished. He collapsed on an adjacent Salvation Army store, killing six people and injuring 13. A woman was found alive 13 hours later, but lost both legs and had more than 30 surgeries before. his death this year.

In subsequent trials, jurors reviewed emails detailing a pre-existing demolition dispute and found the Salvation Army, the building’s owner, and its architect largely to blame. The parties then agreed to pay $ 227 million in damages.

From a criminal standpoint, the architect received immunity in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors, and the wealthy owner of the building was never charged. However, a food cart operator turned entrepreneur was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for manslaughter, despite being acquitted of the third degree murder. A forklift driver who was taking prescription medication for an injury also went to jail after reaching a plea deal.

It was a tragedy, there is no doubt about it. It could have been avoided, said attorney William Hobson, who represents jailed entrepreneur Griffin Campbell, on Tuesday.

He still believes the most guilty people were freed while the two guys at the bottom of the food chain were sued for racial (and) social inequality. Campbell continues to appeal the conviction, with the support of the families of some of the victims.

The deaths prompted Philadelphia authorities to inspect demolition sites across the city and increase their surveillance, which was widely seen as lax.

In Florida, a grand jury is still examining the 2018 collapse of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University that left six people dead. And manslaughter and third degree murder charges were filed following the accidental crash of the ValuJet 592 in the Everglades in 1996, which left 110 people dead.

Denis Bender, professor of civil liability law at Chapman University in Orange County, Calif., Who studies large-scale disasters, sees a growing trend in such cases not only to seek damages, but to pursue criminal proceedings, often for negligence. He said it could be because audiences are now seeing them unfold in real time, as happened with the poignant footage surfside released to the world last week.

I think it’s increasing because of media and social media, not necessarily because there’s a drumbeat, but everyone is horrified by what they can see. And there’s this cry for justice, Binder says.

On something spectacular like this, in today’s world there is great pressure to find flaws, he said. And there is already enough evidence (in Surfside) that people have made bad decisions.

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