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Bill would force Dali owners to pay up to $854 million for Key Bridge collapse

The container ship Dali is pulled into the main channel after leaving the Seagirt Marine Terminal on its way to Norfolk Monday morning 90 days after the ship hit a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge causing a catastrophic collapse. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun/TNS)
By Dillon Mullan The Baltimore Sun

BALTIMORE — A new bill in Congress would alter an 1851 shipping law to force the owners of the Dali to pay up.

U.S. Reps. John Garamendi, a California Democrat, and Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, introduced the Justice for Victims of Foreign Vessel Accidents Act on Tuesday.

The bill would retroactively increase the liability rate for damages by foreign vessels starting March 25, the day before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, according to a news release from Garamendi’s office. The full text of the bill was not yet available Wednesday evening.

In the days after the bridge collapsed, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the Singapore-based owner of the cargo vessel, invoked the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, a maritime law that allows shipping companies to seek to limit their liability to the value of the vessel’s remains after a casualty, asking the federal court in Maryland to limit the damages it pays to $43 million, based on a $90 million valuation of the vessel. The law was passed to protect the nascent U.S. shipping industry from claims for such incidents as piracy or storms, which owners could not control by vessel owners’ liability to the value of the ship and its freight bill.

The bill would force the company to pay as much as $854 million in damages as it proposes increasing the liability rate up to 10 times the dollar value of the vessel and its cargo minus expenses, according to the release, which emphasizes that foreign vessels are not subject to the same state and Coast Guard inspections.

“If the foreign owners of the cargo vessel that took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore think they can leave American taxpayers holding the bag, I have a message for them: you broke it, you bought it,” Garamendi said in the release.

Grace Ocean Private Ltd. has been lobbying on Capitol Hill. The vessel’s owners retained the services of Blank Rome Government Relations on May 2, according to lobbying records.

Five Blank Rome staffers will “monitor and report on legislation pertaining to the bridge accident at the Port of Baltimore,” as well as lobby concerning “proposed changes to the Limitation on Liability Act of 1851,” a disclosure form said. The lobbyists include a former chief counsel for the U.S. Maritime Administration, staff director of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee and congressional aide.

Garamendi is a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where the bill was referred along with the House Judiciary Committee. He also served two terms as California’s insurance commissioner.

The federal government has pledged to cover the full cost of the bridge cleanup, but said it will later try to recoup those costs from any responsible parties. Baltimore City and Baltimore County have hired attorneys to sue Grace Ocean and Synergy for their alleged roles in the bridge collapse. The Maryland Office of the Attorney General has also said it is hiring additional lawyers to help with the litigation.