(ABC ¾ÅÓÎÌåÓý) -- A nearly $1 billion settlement in last year's  was unexpectedly announced during a routine status conference in a Florida courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
Lawyers involved in the class-action lawsuit representing tenants from the oceanfront building in Surfside announced a $997 million settlement had been reached.
Upon the news, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said he was "speechless."
"That's incredible news," the judge said.
"I'm shocked by this result -- I think it's fantastic," the judge told the courtroom. "This is a recovery that is far in excess of what I had anticipated."
Litigation stemming from the catastrophic collapse in June 2021, which killed 98 people, had been moving slowly as the first anniversary approached.
The 12-story residential building partially collapsed around 1:15 a.m. on June 24 at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex's 136 units were destroyed, authorities said.
°Õ³ó±ðÌý were identified more than a month later, on July 26, following a massive search and rescue mission that become a recovery operation.
The victims ranged from young children to elderly couples, and included families, longtime Surfside residents and tourists staying in the building.
"Some of the victims can never recover from this loss and we know that," Hanzman said in court.
The judge said he wants the matter closed before June 24. Motions for preliminary approval will be due no longer than a week from Wednesday.
"My goal was to do everything humanly possible to conclude this case by the first anniversary of the collapse," he said.
All funds for the victims will go through the receivership.
"Today is one of those days in a career that I think we’re going to look back on," attorney Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver, said in court.
Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit argued that the poor construction and maintenance of Champlain Towers South turned catastrophic with the development of a new luxury tower next door.
"CTS [Champlain Towers South] was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door, known as 'Eighty-Seven Park,' that CTS became so badly damaged and destabilized as to be unsafe," the lawsuit stated. "First, the developers of Eighty-Seven Park improperly obtained the right to build higher and larger than originally entitled, including by buying a public street just a few feet from CTS's foundation. Then they undertook destructive excavation and site work dangerously close to CTS, sloped their project so that water poured into CTS and corroded its structural supports, and drove sheet piles 40 feet into the ground, causing tremors and vibrations at such high levels that they cracked tiles and walls at CTS and shook the structure."
Owners and insurers of Eighty-Seven Park had consistently denied any responsibility for the collapse.
Defendants named in the lawsuit included the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association and developers involved in the Eighty-Seven Park project.
The Champlain Condominium Towers South was built in 1981. It was in the process of a county-mandated inspection for commercial and residential buildings 40 years after they're constructed when the building came crashing down.
In the wake of the collapse, Miami-Dade County inspected more than 500 buildings that were approaching the 40-year recertification deadline to identify any obvious structural concerns.
