Baltimore City has argued in court that the owner and operator of a cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge should not be able to avoid liability. The city claims the vessel was “unseaworthy” when it left the Baltimore port last month, according to new court filings.
City attorneys allege that Grace Ocean Private, the owner of the container ship Dali, and Synergy Marine Group, its operator, were “grossly and potentially criminally negligent.”
The attorneys wrote that “for more than four decades, cargo ships made thousands of trips every year under the Key Bridge without incident. There was nothing about March 26, 2024, that should have changed that.”
However, Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine Group “saw fit to put a clearly unseaworthy vessel into the water,” the attorneys wrote. “In no way should their liability be limited.”
The 984-foot cargo ship Dali was trying to leave the Baltimore Harbor on its way to Sri Lanka on March 26 when it lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River.
City attorneys pointed to an April 15 report that found the container ship experienced apparent electrical problems hours before it left the port. The report cited a person with knowledge of the situation.
“None of this should have happened. Reporting has indicated that, even before leaving port, alarms showing an inconsistent power supply on the Dali had sounded. The Dali left port anyway, despite its clearly unseaworthy condition,” the city’s attorneys wrote.
In the days following the collapse, Grace Ocean and Synergy filed a motion to limit their legal liability to about $43.6 million. The city is arguing this liability cannot be limited at this time without a trial, where the companies’ “failures” could be shown.
The FBI has opened an investigation into the crash to focus on the circumstances leading up to the bridge’s collapse and whether all federal laws were followed.
