Father of Surfside victim says $1 billion settlement won’t bring families closure
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Staggering Surfside Settlement: $997 million
In a surprisingly swift resolution of the Champlain Towers South class-action lawsuit, relatives of the victims and survivors of the Surfside condo collapse have reached a settlement that will pay them nearly $1 billion, a state court judge was told Wednesday.
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Father of Surfside victim says $1 billion settlement won’t bring families closure
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The father of a victim of the Surfside condo collapse said the nearly $1 billion legal settlement reached Wednesday won’t buy closure for his family.
His daughter, 26-year-old Miami attorney Nicole Langesfeld, was among the 98 people who died in the June 24 tragedy at the Champlain Towers South. Her husband Luis Sadovnic, 28, died in the collapse as well.
“There’s absolutely no amount of money that will compensate for the loss of my daughter,” Pablo Langesfeld said.
The families of the victims and survivors of the collapse are members of a class-action lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against a string of defendants — including the developers of the Eighty Seven Park condo tower next door, the condo association, a law firm and engineering firms involved with the properties.
The proposed $997 million settlement may bring “some measure of relief” to the families, an attorney for the plaintiffs said in court.
READ MORE: Staggering legal settlement in Surfside collapse
But Langesfeld said the settlement is disappointing because nobody is taking responsibility for the collapse. He said the only way to bring any sort of closure to the families will be finding out what caused Champlain Towers to fall down.
“There’s many defendants and nobody is taking responsibility,” he said. “My main focus is who is responsible for the deaths of the 98 people. It’s not about the money.”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is leading a federal probe into the collapse, while the town of Surfside has hired a consulting engineer to conduct a parallel investigation into what led to the building failure. Defendants in the lawsuit also hired engineering experts to conduct other tests.
Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger said in a statement that while some of those investigations may end now that a settlement has been reached, the town will continue its probe while funding remains. He said commissioners would then have a final say on whether to continue paying for the investigation.
“Additionally we were told by NIST a little while ago that they would be continuing their investigation regardless of a settlement, in order to find a cause so they can propose changes to regulations if needed,” Danzinger said.
The settlement means families would no longer have to continue the “long and painful litigation process,” he said.
“While the settlement will help families with a lot of the financial burdens and stress, it’s important to note that no amount of money could ever be considered adequate compensation for the loss of life,” Danzinger said.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 8:57 PM.
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