U.S. Lawmakers Want Ship Owners to Be More Accountable for Damages in Baltimore Bridge Collapse

Legislation would increase liability caps for maritime accidents involving foreign-owned vessels, allowing damages up to ten times the value of the ship and cargo.

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced legislation, which would hold owners of the vessel responsible for the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore earlier this year accountable for up to $854 million in damages, and change existing laws that date back to the 1800s that shield ship owners from liability for maritime accidents.

The legislation is known as the “Justice for Victims of Foreign Vessel Accident Acts” (H.R. 9348), and was introduced on August 15 by U.S. Representatives John Garamendi, of California, and Representative Hank Johnson, of Georgia.

It is designed to increase the amount of liability owners of vessels can face for damages caused by maritime accidents, updating an 1851 law that caps liability at the remaining value of the vessel. However, that law was enacted at a time when crossing oceans was a much more dangerous endeavor, with shipping losses common enough that if companies were held liable for the full damages of accidents they caused, many would have gone out of business.

The new legislation proposes increasing the damage cap to ten times the value of the ship and cargo for foreign vessels, and it would apply that liability retroactively to the night before the Key Bridge Collapse.

Key Bridge Collapse

The injustice of the 1851 law was highlighted earlier this year, when the MV Dali, a fully loaded container ship, lost power and collided with one of the Francis Scott Key bridge’s supports on March 26, sending the entire structure toppling into the Patapsco River.

Six construction workers died in the maritime accident, and the collapsed structure blocked the channel to the Port of Baltimore for weeks, cutting off one of only four ports on the U.S. east coast that is able to handle ships of its size.

Experts say the Baltimore bridge collapse could be the most expensive marine accident in history, with damages estimated to be between $2 billion and $4 billion. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has launched an investigation into the accident to determine what happened, who is at fault, and how such incidents could be prevented in the future. However, a number of Baltimore bridge collapse lawsuits have already been filed against the vessel’s owners, Grace Ocean.

In April, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine PTE, the Dali’s management company, filed a petition to limit liability for the Baltimore bridge collapse in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, claiming they cannot be held responsible for the full damages caused by the crash. The petition urges the court to limit liability to $43.6 million, which is the value of the ship and its cargo, even if they are found to be liable for the accident.

The legislation proposed by Garamendi and Johnson would increase the amount of liability for foreign vessel owners to ten times the value of the ship and cargo, which could expose the owners of the MV Dali to $854 million in damages if the measure is signed into law.

“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 a press release. “Access to America’s ports and our consumers is a privilege, not a right.”

An investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board found that electrical problems led to a loss of power when the Dali was just three ship lengths away from the bridge, resulting in it drifting into the structure and collapsing it, according to a preliminary report released in June.

The City of Baltimore and local business owners have also filed lawsuits over the Key Bridge collapse, claiming that the Dali was unseaworthy when it left port, and urging the court to reject any limitations on liability, due to what they call the ship owners gross negligence in allowing the vessel to leave port.