The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed a $100 million lawsuit against the owners and operators of the Dali ship that crashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the bridge to subsequently collapse.
The civil lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, targets Singaporean companies Grace Ocean Pvt. Ltd. and Synergy Marine Pvt. Ltd., which owned and operated the Dali container ship.
“The shipowners and managers ask the Court to limit their liability to less than $44 million, but they allowed an ill-prepared crew to navigate U.S. waterways in a vessel that was completely unseaworthy,” the complaint states. “They did so to profit from doing business in U.S. ports, but they cut corners in ways that put lives and infrastructure at risk. Those responsible for the ship must be held fully accountable for the devastating damage they caused, and punitive damages should be assessed 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 outlines how the ship lost power while traveling through Fort McHenry Sound, then regained power, then lost power again. It then struck the Key Bridge, causing it to collapse. Six people were killed.
The accident halted all shipping in and out of the port and cut off a vital highway, according to the lawsuit. The U.S. government then had to remove roughly 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt from the waterways and ships to reopen the Port of Baltimore, the Justice Department said. The lawsuit seeks damages for $100 million the federal government spent responding to and cleaning up the disaster, but not including rebuilding the bridge. Maryland is covering those costs, according to the Justice Department, and may file its own lawsuit in the future.
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This image, taken from video released by the National Transportation Safety Board, shows the cargo ship Dali becoming trapped in a collapsed portion of the Key Bridge after the collision on March 26, 2024. (NTSB/Associated Press)
“This accident was the result of careless and grossly negligent decisions by Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly chose to send unseaworthy vessels into critical waterways and ignored the risks to American lives and the nation's infrastructure,” Acting Attorney General Chetan Patil told reporters.
“The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable those responsible for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which tragically resulted in six deaths and disrupted our nation's transportation and defense infrastructure,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Through this civil lawsuit, the Department of Justice is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the waterway and reopening the Port of Baltimore are paid for by the companies who caused the disaster, not by American taxpayers.”
A crane surrounds the wreckage of the container ship Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge on April 15, 2024. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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“The owners and operators of the Dali were fully aware that the vessel's vibrations could cause a power outage, yet instead of taking the necessary precautions, they did the opposite,” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Mizer. “Through negligence, mismanagement, and sometimes a desire to cut costs, they configured the ship's electrical and mechanical systems in a way that prevented a power outage. These systems were unable to quickly restore propulsion and steering after a power outage. As a result, when the Dali lost power, a series of cascading failures occurred that led to the disaster.”
The lawsuit says that none of the propellers, rudders, anchors or bow thrusters that could have been used to steer the Dali functioned when they were needed to “avoid or mitigate this disaster.”
On May 13, 2024, explosives were detonated to collapse part of the Key Bridge above the container ship Dali. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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“This was a completely avoidable disaster, the result of a series of extremely foreseeable negligence committed by the Dali's owners and operators,” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, Director of the Department of Justice's Civil Division. “This lawsuit seeks recovery of costs incurred by the United States in responding to this disaster, including removing bridge parts and parts entangled in the vessel's hull from the waterway and mitigating the significant risk of oil pollution.”
Fox News Digital reached out to lawyers for Synergy Marine Private Limited and Grace Ocean Private Limited for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
