Justice Department Sues Companies for More Than $100 Million in Costs for Baltimore Bridge Collapse

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the owner and operator of the ship that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. The lawsuit asks for more than $100 million to recoup the cost of extensive cleanup efforts to reopen the Fort McHenry Channel.

The DOJ asserted that the companies’ conduct in sending the container ship Dali down the Patapsco River was “outrageous, grossly negligent, willful, wanton, and reckless.”

The suit claimed that “the Dali got underway with known unseaworthy conditions in confined waters where a ship of its magnitude had every opportunity to cause catastrophic damage and loss of life, which in fact happened.”

The defendants in the civil suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, are the Singapore-based corporations Grace Ocean Private Limited, which owned the Dali, and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Dali’s operator.

Representatives for the companies did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ then-Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, surveys the Francis Scott Key Bridge wreckage in March. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

The bridge collapse resulted in the death of six road workers and impeded operations in the Port of Baltimore until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving completed the cleanup in June.

“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.

This suit from the DOJ is a response to Grace Ocean and Synergy’s petition to the court in April “for exoneration from or limitation of liability” for damages resulting from the collision. In that claim, the companies asked that their liability be limited to $43.67 million for the damage to the ship and its cargo.

In the 53-page filing Wednesday, the DOJ detailed a litany of mechanical and electrical flaws in the Dali that led to collision with the bridge. The suit alleges that Grace Ocean and Synergy were aware of these issues and that Dali’s crew mishandled the ship’s approach to the bridge after two power outages occured in the early hours of March 26.

“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 Boynton said in a statement.

On Tuesday, families of the victims of the bridge collapse announced at a press conference they will be filing their own legal claim to hold the owner of the Dali liable. The six men were immigrant workers from Latin America and their deaths contributed to a national conversation about the rights of immigrants in the United States, who often perform essential labor.

Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy organization, spoke at the press conference in support of the victims and their families.

Torres accused Grace Ocean of trying to “wash their hands of responsibility for these lives lost.”

Carmen Luna, whose husband Miguel Luna was killed in the collapse, said she’s seeking justice not just for her family but for the families of all immigrant workers.

“Real justice means no son has to miss their father. No wife has to navigate this world alone. And no grandchild has to know their grandfather through a distant picture,” said Luna through a translator.

The rebuild of the Key Bridge is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2028.

In April, Maryland lawmakers introduced the Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act in Congress, asking the federal government to cover the cost of rebuilding. The measure is sitting in committees in both the House and Senate, with no movement in the past five months.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, told reporters Tuesday that the state’s lawmakers are hoping to include authorization for federal funds for the bridge in a stopgap spending bill still being negotiated on Capitol Hill.

By CAIT KELLEY and CALEY FOX SHANNON
Capital News Service