Key Bridge Settlement Reached, Operators Charged Criminally

 gCaptain, Record $2.25 Billion Settlement Reached in Baltimore Key Bridge Collapse Case

The State of Maryland has finalized a $2.25 billion settlement with the owner and operator of the containership Dali, marking the largest legal recovery in maritime history and a major milestone in the aftermath of the catastrophic collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The agreement resolves claims brought by Maryland against Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte. Ltd., the owner and operator of the Singapore-flagged M/V Dali, which struck the bridge on March 26, 2024, causing its collapse and killing six construction workers.

The settlement was announced Tuesday by law firm Kelley Drye, which served as assistant counsel for the State of Maryland alongside the Maryland Attorney General’s Office and several outside law firms.

The recovery covers claims tied to the destruction of the bridge, environmental damage, lost toll revenues, disruption to the Port of Baltimore, and broader economic losses suffered across the state.
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The final figure dramatically exceeds the roughly $43.7 million liability cap sought by Grace Ocean and Synergy under the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, a maritime law allowing shipowners to limit liability to the post-casualty value of the vessel.

The settlement was reached only weeks before trial proceedings were set to begin over whether the vessel owner and operator could invoke those protections.

Further:

The legal and technical battle surrounding the casualty intensified further this week after federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges against Synergy Marine, related management entities, and technical superintendent Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair.

Prosecutors allege the companies knowingly operated the Dali with unsafe modifications that undermined critical electrical redundancies aboard the vessel and contributed to the blackout sequence that left the ship without propulsion or steering moments before impact.

According to the indictment, investigators allege operators relied on a flushing pump not designed to automatically restart after a blackout, contributing to a second power loss following the initial electrical failure.

Shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has separately alleged the vessel’s operators bypassed built-in safety redundancies after delivery by replacing automatic fuel supply pumps with the non-redundant flushing pump configuration.

The National Transportation Safety Board previously identified a loose signal wire in a high-voltage switchboard as the initiating cause of the first blackout aboard the nearly 1,000-foot containership.

I'm glad the state has recovered this money from the ship's company. $44 million wouldn't even begin to cover the losses. There is no way to hide the fact that the ship had previous power losses, up to the day before they cast off their lines. Clearly a problem existed, and they did not have it fixed when they left the dock.