Champlain Towers South: Class Action Stresses Lawsuits Should Be Consolidated to Best Help Victims, Property Owners

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A resident of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building has filed a proposed class action in which she urges the court to centralize discovery and document preservation to help best determine “everyone who is to blame for this tragedy” and hold them responsible. 

The plaintiff, who was asleep in her condo when the 12-story Surfside, Florida building partially collapsed in the early hours of June 24, stresses in the 29-page complaint that the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court in which the case was filed is “located in the epicenter of this disaster” and should thus be the avenue in which defendant Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, Inc.’s alleged culpability for the collapse should be adjudicated.

According to the lawsuit, at least the third brought over the tragedy, the defendant caused the building collapse “through their own reckless and negligent conduct.” As of the time of this writing, at least 12 people have been pronounced dead and 149 remain missing as search and rescue efforts continue. 

“Plaintiff brings this action on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated to force Defendant to pay for the damages they caused through their wanton, reckless, and grossly negligent conduct,” the lawsuit states, relaying that the plaintiff’s case is “one of the first of what is expected to be a horde of complaints seeking to recover damages for this exact same conduct.”

The lawsuit contends that each case filed over the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South building should be consolidated before Judge Michael A. Hanzman in Miami-Dade County’s complex litigation division.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff, who recounts in the suit her experience on the night of the collapse, had nearly paid off the mortgage on her Champlain Towers unit, which she purchased in 2003. On the night of June 24, the building “swayed like a sheet of paper,” the plaintiff recalls, saying she opened the doors and was hit with a wall of dust before attempting to call neighbors and a family member. From the complaint: 

“I got my cellphone and called my friend and neighbor, Dick. There was no answer. I called my brother Fred, the call went to his voicemail. I ran through my apartment and out to the hallway. I looked left to the North end of the building. A concrete column had pierced the hallway from floor to ceiling. I looked at the elevators. The elevator shafts were exposed, the doors were gone. I knocked on several neighbors’ doors, no answer. I run to the exit, open the doors that lead to the outside stairwell and saw the devastation. The beachside of Champlain had collapsed, pancaked. I screamed in horror.” 

Fifty-five condo units were completely destroyed in the collapse, the case says, with the rest rendered inhabitable.

The lawsuit relays that although the cause of the collapse is unclear, the building appears to have fallen in a progressive, or “pancake,” fashion, which occurs in the event of failure or damage to a relatively small part of a structure. According to the complaint, failures to the structure could have stemmed from unfit material used during construction, a problem that may have progressed through the years “due to the neglect of the Building Association/Management” and resulted in the collapse. 

Per the case, the defendant had recently hired contractors to re-roof Champlain Tower South, and the extra materials and construction equipment may have added substantial weight to the structure and contributed to the collapse. Another potential exacerbating factor may have come from construction of a neighboring property, which Champlain Towers residents complained caused the building and grounds to shake, the lawsuit says. 

The proposed class action contends that contributing factors notwithstanding, the condo association in charge of the building knew for years that certain parts of the structure were not up to code yet did nothing to address the problem. 

“Regardless, as Defendant was well aware and/or should have been well aware, failure of certain parts of the building have been a continuous issue in Champlain Towers South for decades,” the plaintiff charges. “These issues were brought to building’s attention several times, years before the catastrophe, by the residents, the maintenance manager, and in a building inspection conducted in 2018. The building continuously neglected these warnings.” 

Per the complaint, the defendants were advised in 2018 that failures in the building were causing “major structural damage[]” and informed of the specific areas that needed to be addressed in a timely fashion. Despite being presented with evidence of the building’s structural deterioration, the defendant “for years” failed to show “any effort to prevent the serious issues the building was facing,” the suit says.

“Moreover, Plaintiff herself previously experienced issues with the deteriorating building, including one occasion when a chunk of concrete fell out of the garage ceiling and landed behind her parked car,” the lawsuit continues. 

A contractor at the Champlain Towers two days before the collapse was said to have found “standing water all over the parking garage,” in addition to cracking concrete and severely corroded rebar beneath the pool, the case says. The contractor, the suit claims, told a building staff member, who replied that the building “pumped [water from] the basement so frequently that the building had to replace pump motors every two years,” though no mention was made of any structural damage or cracks to the concrete above. 

Law360 reports that Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced Tuesday her intention to ask a grand jury to look at what steps might be taken to protect residents without interfering with any scientific, public safety or potential criminal investigations into the collapse. 

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