Justice Department On Tuesday, Dali filed a $100 million lawsuit against the owner and operator of the ship that collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and later collapsed.
The civil claim, filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, is targeted at two Singapore-based companies, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, that owned and operated the Dali container ship.
“The ship’s owners and managers — who now ask the Court to limit their liability to less than $44 million — sent an inadequately prepared crew on a completely unfit vessel to travel on United States waterways,” the lawsuit states. “They did so in order to take advantage of the trade they were conducting in U.S. ports. Yet they cut corners in ways that put lives and infrastructure at risk. Those responsible for the ship must be held fully accountable for the catastrophic losses they caused, and punitive damages must be imposed to deter such misconduct.”
The Daly departed from the Port of Baltimore on the morning of March 26, bound for Sri Lanka. The lawsuit briefly describes how the ship lost power, regained power, then lost power a second time while passing through the Fort McHenry Channel. It then struck the ship’s bridge, causing it to collapse. Six people were killed,
The lawsuit says the incident halted all shipping to and from the port and cut off a key highway route. In the aftermath, the U.S. government needed to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt from the channel and the ship to reopen the Baltimore port, the DOJ said. The claim seeks to recoup the $100 million the federal government spent on the disaster and cleanup, but does not include rebuilding the bridge. The state of Maryland bore those costs and could file its own claim in the future, according to the DOJ.
In this image taken from a video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is trapped under parts of the collapsed Kee Bridge, which the ship collided with on March 26, 2024. (NTSB/AP)
“This accident was caused by reckless and grossly negligent decisions made by Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly chose to send an unseaworthy vessel into a vital waterway and ignored the dangers to American lives and the nation’s infrastructure,” Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chetan Patil told reporters.
“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring accountability for those responsible for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which resulted in the tragic deaths of six people and disrupted our nation’s transportation and defense infrastructure,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “With this civil claim, the Department of Justice is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the accident, not by American taxpayers.”
Crane barges surround the wreck of the container ship Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge on April 15, 2024. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Baltimore Port fully reopens after $100 million cleanup of collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge
“The Dali’s owners and operators were well aware of vibration problems on the ship that could lead to a power outage. But instead of taking the necessary precautions, they did the opposite,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer. “Through negligence, mismanagement and, at times, a desire to cut costs, they configured the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems in a way that would have prevented a power outage from occurring. These systems prevented the ship from being able to quickly restore propulsion and steering after a power loss. As a result, when the Dali lost power, one set of failures after another led to disaster.
Neither the propeller, rudder, anchor nor bow thruster, all of which should have been available, were available, the lawsuit said Running the DaliThey acted when they were needed “to avert or mitigate this disaster.”
On 13 May 2024, explosives will be detonated to demolish parts of the collapsed Key Bridge that is resting on the container ship Dali. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“This was a completely avoidable disaster that occurred as a result of numerous clearly foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the Dali,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The lawsuit seeks to recover costs incurred by the United States in responding to this disaster, including removing portions of the bridge from the channel and those parts that became entangled with the ship, as well as mitigating the substantial risk of oil pollution.”
Fox News Digital reached out to counsel for Synergy Marine Pvt Ltd and Grace Ocean Pvt Ltd for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
