That is addressed in the second link. In situations with many claimants and insufficient limits, interpleader agreements where the court holds the money often aren’t an effective strategy. An insured tendering their limits in an interpleader agreement isn’t off the hook on expenses, as putting your limits in the courts hands is not considered an indemnity payment so expenses still roll in.
I too have been an actuary involved in a number of cases racking up high dollar defense costs in proportion to the limit. One was very similar in terms of 8 figure claim investigation costs on a $1M limit where fault was clear.
OK, so they are not off the hook just by tendering the limits.(assuming def cost outside of limit.) But they ARE off the hook for not showing any delay at all in having tendered them. Sounds like you are saying they still have work to do? Not surprising that they do. But the insco has cleared one hurdle of its performance requirement, with others still yet to clear.
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — The tally of the missing in the Florida condominium collapse was substantially reduced Friday, from 145 to 128, after duplicate names were eliminated and some people reported missing turned up safe, officials said.
Authorities also announced the recovery of two more bodies, including the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter. That raised the confirmed death toll to 20 people.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the number of missing declined following an audit. She explained that in some cases, one person may have been moved to the “accounted for” list when, in fact, an entire family had been found to be safe.
Well it sounds like a “40 year recertification” is already a thing in Florida. Issue is that this building was exactly 40 years post-completion (I don’t know if the clock starts when construction begins or when it finishes… so maybe 41 years in this case) and had really really bad problems.
So maybe they need to switch their 40 year recertification to a 30 year recertification??? It sounds like if these issues would have been dealt with in 2011 they would have been a lot cheaper to fix… and (more importantly) the building wouldn’t have collapsed.
IANAEngineer, so I’m not sure when these types of problems usually show themselves. Perhaps 35 years is long enough for the problems to expose themselves but short enough to fix before they become even bigger problems?
Seems to this layperson that, for Florida at least, 40 years is too long.
I suspect that some similar quest for reassurance is what drove so many people to initially ask whether the Surfside tragedy was fundamentally a political story — about capitalism, or deregulation, or some other perceived enemy. If there is a clear villain, an obvious error, there is also some clear way to ensure that no such thing ever happens to the rest of us. Certainly there are always ways to be more sure. In the wake of Surfside, building codes across the nation will undoubtedly be revised, and building inspections will surely become more frequent. As they should. Yet even after all those revisions, we will all still live in a risky universe that we understand but imperfectly — and we will all, every one of us, remain worryingly dependent on fellow humans who sometimes fail even when they are doing their very best.
Absolutely, but in the end everything depends on humans. And unfortunately we are a flawed bunch. Take the bridge over the Mississippi River on I-40 between Memphis, TN and West Memphis, AR. There were specific requirements for inspection of that bridge and yet there is photographic evidence that the crack was there, though not as obvious and severe as far back as 2016.
BTW, they brought the rest of the building structure down last night in a controlled demo.
The I35W bridge was blamed at least partially on a design flaw, though it had other warning signs that were ignored or not acted on quickly enough. The I40 bridge was a situation where the warning signs were not detected because while the processes to detect them were there, those processes were being ignored, for years.
There is a bridge in Joliet, Illinois on I80 that is rumored to be unsafe.
"Construction unions paid to display the messages “Cross bridge at your own risk” and “Bridge ahead in critical condition” on electronic billboards near Interstate 80 bridges over the Des Plaines River in Joliet.
The billboards heightened motorists’ fears about crumbling infrastructure and generated bipartisan support for the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois program."
Depending on the truthiness of the signs that might or might not be a good outcome. Leaning towards “probably a good outcome” without evidence to the contrary.
Interesting article with explanations and simulations of how it could have happened based on preliminary information from a couple of engineers not related to the investigation, plus I think information from the one leading the investigation. All very, very preliminary. But pretty interesting.
A couple years ago, Elon Musk came out with several of the books that inspired him on various levels.
On of them was Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down. I found a copy for like 3 bucks in an antique store last year, and just recently cracked it open. I remember a lot of the stuff from my engineering classes, but it’s a quick read, not too much math.
Now when I’m walking around town, I notice and I contemplate bridges and churches and high-ten towers.
I shoulda stayed with the engineering. Damn college and it’s diversions such as women, booze, volleyball and darts. All of which are still big parts of my life.
What’s your New York contruction multiplier? $9 Million probably doesn’t go very far in NY and is probably more of a routine kind of assessment. In other parts of the country though it’s probably a lot more work and a harder pill to swallow.
FWIW, I was on my co-op board from about 2004-2006, iirc (I don’t remember the exact dates). So I don’t have the figures at mind… those records were before I had gmail, so I don’t have my old emails to dig through.
Anyway, we had a multi-million dollar roof repair (plus ancillary repairs - repointing the facade from wear, etc.) while I was on the board. I remember having to decide on proposals.