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City of Baltimore hits back at Dali owners

Nearly a month after the collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore city, lawyers have fired back at Dali owners Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, filing a lawsuit that claims the companies were negligent.

Nick Savvides, Europe correspondent

April 23, 2024

2 Min Read
Francis Scott Key Bridge Dali
USCG Petty Officer 3rd Class Kimberly Reaves

The 10,000 teu Dali lost power shortly after leaving Baltimore port on 26 March and slammed into the Francis Key Bridge, which collapsed, killing six workers and blocking the entrance to the port.

In its filing the city alleges: “Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd saw fit to put a clearly unseaworthy vessel into the water. Petitioners’ actions were grossly and potentially criminally negligent. In no way should their liability be limited.”

Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine had originally filed a law suit petitioning the Maryland District Court to exonerate the companies and to limit their liability to $43,670,000, the value of the ship plus the outstanding freight.

According to the city’s filing alarms had sounded on board the Dali “hours before it departed”.

Alarms were set off on the vessel’s refrigerated containers as the Dali wad experiencing inconsistent power supply to the reefers.

Crew did not investigate or did not repair the fault before the vessel sailed, according to the city lawyers.

“The Dali’s onboard data recorder recorded audio of ‘numerous aural alarms’. The onboard data recorder then briefly stopped recording, and then turned on again, using a redundant power source.” However, the source was not powerful enough to allow the Dali’s crew to regain control over the ship.

Related:NTSB investigations in the spotlight with Dali bridge collision

Baltimore city lawyers allege that the owner and operator’s “negligence” was “readily apparent”, and no blame can “conceivably be lain at the City’s feet for the allision”.

Instead, the accident was allegedly a “direct and proximate result of Petitioners’ carelessness, negligence, gross negligence, and recklessness, and as a result of the unseaworthiness of the Vessel.”

City lawyers estimate that Baltimore generated over $70bn of “economic value” last year, including billions of dollars in annual tax revenues.

If the city is successful in proving the companies were negligent, the cost of the lost revenues alone would run into billions of dollars, and that is not including the cost of rebuilding the destroyed bridge; the cost would vastly overshadow the $43.6m that is offered in the owners petition for exoneration.

Such sums would be liable if the city can prove, as it alleges, that the accident was caused by an “incompetent” crew, who were poorly trained, did not follow local navigational customs, that the owners failed to properly oversee its fleet to make certain that it was being operated in accordance with company policies and procedures, principles of good seamanship, and in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Related:Evergreen diverts cargo in wake of Baltimore bridge collapse

Lawyers further allege that the owners had failed to properly maintain the vessel and its systems and had, “Failed to timely eliminate known or knowable hazards,” as well rectify any known deficiencies.

About the Author

Nick Savvides

Europe correspondent

Experienced journalist working online, in monthly magazines and daily news coverage. Nick Savvides began his journalistic career working as a freelance from his flat in central London, and has since worked in Athens, while also writing for some major publications including The Observer, The European, Daily Express and Thomson Reuters. 

Most recently Nick joined The Loadstar as the publication’s news editor to develop the profile of the publication, increase its readership and to build a team that will market, sell and report on supply chain issues and container shipping news. 

This was a similar brief to his time at ci-online, the online publication for Containerisation International and Container News. During his time at ci-online Nich developed a team of freelancers and full-time employees increasing its readership substantially. He then moved to International Freighting Weekly, a sister publication, IFW also focused on container shipping, rail and trucking and ports. Both publications were published by Informa. 

Following his spell at Informa Nick joined Reed’s chemical reporting team, ICIS, as the chemical tanker reporter. While at ICIS he also reported on the chemical industry and spent some time on the oil & gas desk. 

Nick has also worked for a time at Lloyd’s Register, which has an energy division, and his role was writing their technical magazine, before again becoming a journalist at The Naval Architect for the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. After eight successful years at RINA, he joined Fairplay, which published a fortnightly magazine and daily news on the website.

Nick's time at Fairplay saw him win the Seahorse Club Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year 2018 awards.

After Fairplay closed, Nick joined an online US start-up called FreightWaves. 

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