ARI Insurance Cos. Inc. filed an amended multi-million dollar lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against the Walt Disney World Company and Sanford B. Miot, former president of Disney subsidiary Arvida Southern, to recover $15.5 million ARI paid to homeowners, alleging that poor design, materials and workmanship caused extensive damage and destruction to homes in the Village Homes at Country Walk during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The suit seeks punitive damages.
According to the company, the lawsuit was originally filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in 1993 (Case no. 93-6945-CA15).
The lawsuit charges: “The vast majority of the units were under the design, supervision and control of defendants, Disney and Miot. Those units completely disintegrated under the winds of Andrew, like the proverbial house of cards. The abject failure of Disney’s homes far exceeded that which would be expected of homes built to even minimum standards of the relevant building code. The pervasiveness of Disney’s grossly inadequate supervision, design, construction and materials throughout the entire community clearly rises to the level of reckless indifference to the rights and safety of others. Moreover, it evidences reckless disregard of human life or of safety of persons exposed to Disney’s buildings. ARI believes this warrants the amendment to pursue punitive damages.”
The lawsuit claims that prior to Hurricane Andrew, Walt Disney World Company and its various real estate development companies, including Arvida Corporation, Arvida/JMB and ARDC Corporation, were responsible for the design, planning, construction, supervision, materials, contractors and subcontractors, suppliers, materials, marketing and sales of residential homes at Village Homes of Country Walk.
ARI issued insurance policies covering 344 units in 86 separate structures for the Village Homes of Country Walk Master Association and the Village Homes at Country Walk Condominiums 1 through 9.
According to the lawsuit, Sanford Miot served as a general contractor and qualifier for the project. In that capacity, he assumed the duty to supervise the construction of the development to ensure its compliance with all South Florida Building codes, Florida Statues and other standards in the industry.
The lawsuit states that after Hurricane Andrew inspectors found that extensive damage and destruction to several hundred houses and condominiums at Country Walk, as a direct result of serious defects in design, construction and building materials. Severely damaged or destroyed spectors said the ARI paid its insureds a total of $15, 594,000.
ARI alleges that the destruction would have been minimized had Disney and Miot followed building codes and used sufficient materials.
Topics Lawsuits Construction
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