The link’s paywalled. Does the story say what happened?
In rejecting Karron’s motion, Hanzman said it is not the court’s prerogative to second- guess the decisions of authorities at the scene.
What’s the process to force a legal hearing on a Sunday (especially one that’s a national holiday)? What do you have to do to drag the judge and others to court?
Shit.
I’m a lot more confident in her knowing that her cat was in there than I am in the ability of the authorities on the scene to tell that the cat wasn’t in there.
And she must be feeling utterly terrible.
– if there had been hundreds of people trying to get in, I agree that they couldn’t allow it; there’d be chaos. But there seem to only have been a couple of likely instances. Karron would be allowed to go mountain climbing, or jump out of a plane – why couldn’t she be allowed to risk her life to go get the cat?
I hear ya, nd it certainly compounds the tragedy. But imagine that they let her in one last time, then the building collapsed. I mean, they just couldn’t do it. If that was my condo, and my dog was in there, I’d probably be arrested trying to force or sneak my way in. But I understand why they had to say no. Sucks.
Her choice. Warn her sixteen ways from Sunday that it could happen; then let her chance it if she still wants to.
The authorities had also spent 10 days putting out food and water on the balconies to try to lure pets, used drones to look for life in the building, and so forth. It’s not like no effort was made
I think people are also overlooking that in the haste to evacuate it is possible the cat (or other pets) got out of their unit and wound up in a part that crashed down or otherwise came to grief in their panic and fear.
Generally, when you’re jumping out of an airplane or climbing a mountain you put either zero or very few people at risk. Going into the building and unintentionally precipitating a collapse could have potentially killed a couple dozen people.
In other words it’s not just her life the authorities were worried about, it was all the other lives the building might have fallen on.
With an apology in advance for not having read the whole thread, are there any lawyers in the house who can comment on potential legal actions arising from this? Since the residents themselves are the owners of the building, can the condo board for failure to maintain the building? Or did they hire an outside management service?
the world is full of authorities who make mistakes and Judges intervene all the time. the question is straightforward. If it’s OK to let 100 people endanger themselves retrieving human remains why is it unsafe to rescue a pet. In this case it would be safer. the pet owner would be inside the building away from falling debris.
Potential legal actions? I think it’s pretty clear that lawsuits are going to be flying in every possible direction; residents suing the board, the board suing the engineers who evaluated the building, the building suing the town, etc.
There have already been lawsuits filed. I think the first one was in just shy of 24 hours after the collapse.
And sure, you can always sue the condo board, regardless of whether or not they hired outside management or consultants or whatever because the board has some responsibility regarding who they hire.
Small correction: you can sue the condo board members that survived the collapse. Not all of them did. Some of them died in their beds like dozens of their fellow residents. I believe if you want to go after the dead you’ll have to sue their estates.
Here is an article describing potential personal liability of condo board member:
Excerpt:
It is well established in Florida that absent fraud, self-dealing and betrayal of trust, directors of condominium associations are not personally liable for the decisions they make intheir capacity as directors of condominium associations.
I know there was some attempt made. But had the cat in question even ever been allowed out on the balcony? Indoor-only cats are sometimes terrified of the outdoors. According to her human, who knew her better than either of us, she would have stayed hidden under the bed; I don’t know that they were able to have drones go look under the beds. I’ve had cats who would never have come out where a stranger might catch them, even if they’d come out in the middle of the night to eat.
I don’t know how likely it was that one person’s weight could be enough to trigger the fall, if placing demolition charges didn’t do it. And they presumably had to clear the building anyway before demolition.
But if it was thought possible that one person moving through the building might bring it down in an unexpected direction, yes, that’s a point.
I thought they used cherry pickers to place the charges? I don’t believe anyone actually entered the building.
I’m not sure. I’m having trouble finding details about the demolition process; maybe I’m not thinking of the right keywords. This kind of reads like people went in:
In the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South complex in Surfside, workers drilled into columns where small explosive charges were placed to bring the remains of the building down in a small area, officials said.
I believe that the first responders are going to have an easier time finding bodies now that the whole building has come down, because they aren’t as concerned about dislodging rubble and creating more casualties.
It also had to be heartbreaking for the people who lived in units that otherwise may have looked intact to see their home being destroyed, again.
But if she’d done that, and, while in the building, tripped and fallen on one of the many pieces of wreckage, or tried to pull the cat out from a bit that was partly fallen in and got both of them stuck, then the emergency services wouldn’t have just sat on their thumbs listening to her screams and saying “well, it was her choice.”
And then them going in there to rescue her puts them at risk.
I feel for her, but you can’t put firefighters’ lives at risk on the tiny chance that your cat is still alive.
The obvious solution is “put this in your pocket so that, if you get stuck, instead of screaming for help, take the black capsule.”
Which would likely be a felony under federal drug laws.