Justice Department files $100M lawsuit against operator of vessel in Baltimore Key Bridge wreck

The Justice Department filed a $100 million lawsuit on Tuesday against the owner and operator of the Dali vessel that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which subsequently collapsed.

The civil claim, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, targets Singaporean corporations Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, which owned and operated the Dali container ship.

“The ship’s owner and manager – who now ask the Court to limit their liability to less than $44 million – sent an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways,” the lawsuit says. “They did so to reap the benefit of conducting business in American ports. Yet they cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure. Those responsible for the vessel must be held fully accountable for the catastrophic harm they caused, and punitive damages should be imposed to deter such misconduct.”    

The Dali left the Port of Baltimore in the early morning hours of March 26 bound for Sri Lanka. The lawsuit summarizes how the ship lost power, regained power, then lost it a second time while maneuvering through Fort McHenry Channel. The vessel then struck the Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six people were killed. 

The lawsuit says the incident brought all shipping in and out of the port to a standstill and cut off a critical highway route. In the aftermath, the U.S. government needed to haul about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt from the channel and from the ship itself in order to eventually reopen the Port of Baltimore, the DOJ said. The claim seeks to recover $100 million in damages the federal government spent on responding to the disaster and cleanup, but it does not include bridge reconstruction. The state of Maryland incurred those costs and may pursue a claim of its own in the future, according to the DOJ. 

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In this image taken from video released by the National Transportation and Safety Board, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under parts of the collapsed Key Bridge, which the ship hit, on March 26, 2024. (NTSB/AP)

“This accident happened because of the careless and grossly negligent decisions made by Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly chose to send an unseaworthy vessel to navigate a critical waterway and ignored the risks to American lives and the nation’s infrastructure,” Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chetan Patil told reporters. 

“The Justice Department 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 country’s transportation and defense infrastructure,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “With this civil claim, the Justice Department 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 crash, not by the American taxpayer.”

Crane barges surround the container ship Dali and the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on April 15, 2024. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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“The owner and operator of the Dali were well aware of vibration issues on the vessel that could cause a power outage. But instead of taking necessary precautions, they did the opposite,” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said. “Out of negligence, mismanagement, and, at times, a desire to cut costs, they configured the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems in a way that prevented those systems from being able to quickly restore propulsion and steering after a power outage. As a result, when the Dali lost power, a cascading set of failures led to disaster.”

The lawsuit notes that neither the propeller, rudder, anchor nor bow thruster, all of which should have been available to steer the Dali, worked when they were needed “to avert or even mitigate this disaster.” 

Explosive charges are detonated to bring down sections of the collapsed Key Bridge resting on the container ship Dali on May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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“This was an entirely avoidable catastrophe, resulting from a series of eminently foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the Dali,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said. “The suit seeks to recover the costs incurred by the United States in responding to this disaster, which include removing the bridge parts from the channel and those parts that were entangled with the vessel, as well as abating the substantial risk of oil pollution.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to Synergy Marine Private Limited and an attorney for Grace Ocean Private Limited for comment, but they did not immediately respond.