Dali’s owner, operator to pay $102 million to settle federal lawsuit over Key Bridge collapse

A view of the remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge the morning of its collapse. The Dali can be seen pinned under bridge wreckage at the top of the photo. Screenshot from a March 26 National Transportation Safety Board video.

The owners and operators of the ship that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, killing six workers and paralyzing the Port of Baltimore, will pay more than $100 million to the Justice Department to settle a federal lawsuit in the case.

Thursday’s announcement comes just five weeks after the Justice Department sued the owners of the Dali in U.S. District Court in Baltimore for sending “an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways …  Yet they cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure.”

The civil suit had been seeking just over $103 million in damages from Grace Ocean Private Ltd., which owns the Dali, and Synergy Marine Private Ltd., which manages the vessel. The companies instead agreed to pay just under $102 million to settle the civil suit, Justice said in a statement.

“We were able to secure this early settlement of our claim, just over one month into litigation,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer in the statement. “This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer.”

The Justice Department suit was just one of at least a dozen legal actions filed against the Dali’s owners by governments, businesses and private individuals. The incident is also under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, and there is a separate, ongoing, criminal investigation.

All the civil suits were filed in response to a legal attempt by the ship’s owners and operators to limit their liability in the incident to $43.7 million under maritime law.

The Dali was leaving the Port of Baltimore early on the morning of March 26 when it lost power, and struck one of the piers of the Key Bridge, sending the bridge span tumbling into the Patapsco River and blocking all traffic into and out of the port for weeks, causing significant economic damage. The collapse also killed six of the eight road workers who were doing maintenance on the bridge deck when it fell.

State, federal and private crews spent months pulling 50,000 tons of concrete and twisted steel from the river to reopen the channel into the Port of Baltimore, and cleaning up the economic damage.

Thursday’s settlement will cover the federal government’s clean-up costs, the Justice Department said. And it’s not the first payout, but comes in “in addition to $97,294 recently paid by Grace Ocean to the Coast Guard National Pollution Fund Center for costs incurred to abate the threat of oil pollution arising from the incident,” the department’s statement said.

It’s unlikely to be the last payout, either.

Among those filing suit against the companies is the state of Maryland, and the families of workers who were killed in the collapse.

The state’s lawsuit does not set a specific dollar amount to the damages. But the state is seeking to recover the costs of rebuilding the Key Bridge, a state toll facility, a project that preliminary estimates said could be $1.7 billion ― a number that state transportation officials warned this week may change.

President Biden pledged in the hours after the collapse that the federal government would pay 100% of the cost of replacing the bridge ― but a bill to do that is currently stalled in Congress, which does not return from recess until Nov. 12.

The Justice Department said none of Thursday’s settlement will go toward replacing the bridge, which it said is the aim of the state’s suit.

Damages sought by the state — which are yet to be specified — could easily run in the billions of dollars. Earlier this year, Lloyd’s of London said the incident could be the most expensive maritime insurance payout in history. Total claims could approach $4 billion, according to the insurer, which is also party to the lawsuits filed against the Dali’s owner and operator.

Lawsuits have also been filed by Baltimore City and by Baltimore County. They were among nearly a dozen suits that had been filed as of last month in the incident, including:

• American Publishing LLC was the first business to file a lawsuit related to the collapse of the bridge. The company alleges in its claim that it suffered an 84% drop in revenue less than a month after the incident.

• Underwood Energy, a Baltimore-based company that transports propane and other hazardous materials used by residential and commercial customers. The company used to transport its products over the Key Bridge. Those materials are prohibited in the Fort McHenry and Harbor Tunnels, which means the company must now transport its products around Interstate 695. The company is seeking unspecified damages and attorneys fees.

• Hunt Valley-based Brawner Builders, the contractor hired to do maintenance work on the bridge the night of the collapse, claims damages from the injury and deaths of employees as well as the loss of equipment on the bridge. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

• The families and estates of the six workers who died in the collapse — Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Carlos Daniel Hernandez Estrella, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, José Mynor López, and Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval — are seeking unspecified damages. All six workers were immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

• Insurance companies are also seeking damages. In one lawsuit, companies including New York Marine, General Insurance and underwriters at Lloyd’s of London, Axis Syndicate 1686 — all of whom insured cargo on the Dali — are seeking to recover the costs of claims paid out plus interest and other unspecified damages. In a second lawsuit involving insurance companies, Liberty Mutual is seeking similar damages for cargo it insured.

• Shipping company Star Bulk, owner of the cargo ship Star Triumph, is seeking more than $756,000 in fees, costs, expenses and interest and lost profits after the cargo ship was prevented from entering the Port of Baltimore after the collapsed bridge closed the shipping channel.

– Maryland Matters reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.