City of Baltimore Files Lawsuit to Recoup Money for Collapsed Bridge

First came the accident. Then came the port workarounds. Now the lawsuits are beginning.

The city of Baltimore is suing the owners of the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse and closing the Port of Baltimore for months.

The lawsuit against the owners of the 984-foot Dali seeks hundreds of millions of dollars. The March 26 crash killed six people and caused ocean shippers to seek port alternatives to Baltimore, the 11th-largest port in the U.S. and No. 1 in shipments of automobiles and light trucks.

The port is slowly recovering. The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on April 25 after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago. Full service at the harbor is supposed to happen sometime in late May. But insiders are doubting the accident ever should have occurred in the first place.

“None of this should have happened,” the lawsuit against Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd. The Singapore-based ship had an estimated value and revenue of $43.7 million, the owners said.

The FBI and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are both investigating the accident. They are honing in on an inconsistent power supply on the ship, which crashed about 30 minutes after it lost steering shortly after leaving the port. Specifically, the FBI is looking into whether the ship’s crew knew the Dali had mechanical or electrical issues before leaving the Port of Baltimore

The Dali’s owners were “grossly and potentially criminally negligent,” the lawsuit said. “In no way should their liability be limited.”

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