It has emerged that Segue Construction Inc, the company that built the Berkeley apartment complex where six Irish students were killed, paid millions to settle a case about water damaged balconies.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, owners of a unit at Pines at North Park Apartments, San Jose accused Segue of “failing to design the breezeways, private balconies and stairwells at the project in substantial compliance with all applicable local and state codes and according to industry standard.”

However, a spokesperson for the company said the balconies were “substantially different” from those in the Berkeley complex. “It is like comparing apples and oranges,” he said.

Expert analysis of photos taken of the collapsed balcony suggests waterproofing may not have been sufficient, causing dry-rot in the wooden joists which attached it to the building.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates speculated on this possibility:

“I am not an engineer, but it could turn out to be the case that the wood underpinning the fourth-floor balcony had rotted from exposure to water. In my view there is a high probability it will be.”

Former city planning official Carrie Olson said the balconies were only intended for decorative purposes.

"[They were] definitely not large enough to be what the city would call an 'open-space balcony', where groups of people could stand outside," she said.

The families of the six victims are waiting for the victims' bodies to be released to them, before arrangements can be finalised to repatriate them.

Seven students are still being treated in hospital after Tuesday's tragedy.

Washington Correspondent with the Irish Times Simon Carswell told the Last Word that details are emerging about the company that built the Liberty Gardens complex: