Fund to help victims of condo collapse by court-appointed receiver grows by $1 million

As lawsuits over the deadly collapse of Champlain Towers South continued to mount on Wednesday, so did a fund to help the victims of the tragedy.

A Miami lawyer agreed to donate $1 million to a court-appointed receiver who has been tapped to distribute emergency money to those who were left homeless or are struggling to pay funeral expenses for their loved ones.

“I was born in Miami Beach. I know people who were in the building. I know people who owned units,” attorney John Ruiz said of why he wrote a seven-figure check and, like other lawyers, has offered to represent victims and their families for free.

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His contribution was added to the roughly $3 million insurers have agreed to pay receiver Michael Goldberg.

With a Miami-Dade County judge’s approval, Goldberg is paying up to $2,000 to help families with “end of life needs” and $10,000 to families who need assistance to find places to live.

Already, 10 lawsuits have been filed in connection with the early morning collapse of the 12-story tower. Another 10 bodies were recovered on Wednesday, raising the death toll to 46 with the fates of another 94 people unknown.

Emergency workers grimly acknowledged that their work had shifted from search and rescue to recovery.

One of three lawsuits filed Wednesday was on behalf of the suburban West Palm Beach mother of Ana Ortiz-Kleiman. The 46-year-old newlywed died along with her 26-year-old son and 55-year-old husband, Frankie Kleiman, when the building crumbled on June 24.

“She’s devastated over the loss of her daughter,” said attorney Debi Chalik, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of 67-year-old Josefina Henriquez. “She says somebody has to be held responsible for this.”

In addition to the condo association and onsite property manager Scott Stewart, Chalik is suing Morabito Consultants, a structural engineering firm with offices in Palm Beach Gardens and Maryland. It analyzed the integrity of the building in 2018 and mapped out a restoration plan in 2020.

In a statement, the company said it warned the association of “significant cracks and breaks in the concrete, which required repairs to ensure the safety of the residents and the public.”

It prepared a detailed multi-million dollar repair plan and roof work was underway when the building disintegrated as people slept. The company emphasized it is a consulting company, not a contractor.

“We are deeply troubled by this building collapse and are working closely with the investigating authorities to understand why the structure failed,” it said in the statement. “As we do so, we also continue to pray for all those impacted by this tragic event.”

In addition to the lawsuit over Ortiz-Kleiman’s death, one was filed by Soriya Cohen, who lost her 51-year-old husband, Dr. Brad Cohen, a Miami-Dade County orthopedic surgeon and father of the couple’s two children.

Ruiz, who attended a court hearing on Wednesday, said it is likely that all of the lawsuits will eventually be consolidated into a class-action lawsuit.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman has already taken steps to make that happen.

In addition to appointing the receiver to sort out the complex financial issues, he has appointed a team of lawyers to analyze how to best handle what is expected to be an avalanche of claims.

The task will be made more complicated because “it is clear that this case involves limited funds/assets that are not likely to be sufficient to adequately compensate” the hundreds who were impacted by the tragedy, Hanzman wrote.

The Great American Insurance Group was the condominium's primary insurer, according to a lawsuit Ruiz filed. The policy limits were $30.1 million.

However, the association had at least three other insurers as well. While Ruiz said the total amount of coverage is unknown, the receiver has said about $48 million has been identified, according to the Miami Herald.

In addition, there are possible claims against contractors who worked on the building and those that worked on nearby buildings that may have impacted the fragile integrity of the tower.

There is also the possibility that the land, valued at about $100 million, could be sold and the proceeds used to compensate victims, the newspaper reported.

Already, residents are split on whether the land should be sold or preserved as a memorial to the lives that were lost, the Herald reported.

While Hanzman has promised to move quickly to resolve the legal issues, he said those types of decisions are months away.

Ruiz, who said he was involved in litigation that surrounded the 2005 crash of a Chalk’s Ocean Airways flight that killed 20, agreed.

“It’s going to be a long process,” he said.

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fund to help victims of condo collapse by court-appointed receiver grows by $1 million

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