Baltimore files suit on bridge collapse, cites outsize economic impact
Baltimore filed suit against the owner and operator of the cargo ship Dali that took down the Francis Scott Key bridge as it attempted to leave the Baltimore Port.
Baltimore sees “carelessness, negligence, gross negligence, and recklessness” in a decision by the owner and /or operator to “put a clearly unseaworthy vessel” to sea, actions they call “grossly and potentially criminally negligent.”:
The damage claims, not yet specified in dollar terms, span a huge list including bridge replacement, river obstruction, transport interruption throughout the city, environmental clean-up, increased road maintenance on alternative routes, public welfare and services costs, tax losses on the interruption of port and other business, public nuisance and much more.
“It is difficult to overestimate the Port’s import to the local economy,” city authorities stated in their court claim to set up their eventual damages claim.
The city cites recent estimates that the Port of Baltimore generated more than $70 billion of economic value in 2023 alone, “including billions of dollars in yearly tax revenue for government entities, including the City of Baltimore.”
Baltimore sees “tens of thousands” of jobs tied to the port. A 2023 Economic Impact Study produced for the Maryland Port Administration identified 51,365 “direct, induced and indirect jobs” provided by the Port.
Headed to the defence stand, the Singapore-registered owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and the ship's operator, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., also of Singapore.
Negligence in the Dali case follows indication, still hours before departure, that alarms went off on the Dali’s refrigerated containers, showing that the Dali had been experiencing an inconsistent power supply, Baltimore alleged.
That power supply problem, ultimately leaving the Dali unable to steer its safe way out of the port, “was either not investigated or, if investigated, not fixed,” the claim asserts.
The cargo ship which struck the Francis Scott Key bridge in late March figures on the fleet listing of the Britannia P&I mutual shipowner insurance club. Britannia is a constituent P&I member of the International Group of P&I clubs which buys $3.1 billion of XoL marine liability limit for the group above member club mutual limit.
Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
