Baltimore takes legal action against Dali owner and manager

Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command photo by Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Lauren Steenson

Within days of retaining law firms to act on its behalf, the City of Baltimore has filed a claim in U.S. District Court against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Management, the owner and manager, respectively, of the Dali, the ship that smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge causing it to collapse.

In a challenge to the limitation of liability petition filed by Grace Ocean and Synergy, the City is seeking a jury trial and asserting, among other things that the strike on the Key Bridge by the Dali was the result of the owner’s and manager’s “carelessness, negligence, gross negligence, and recklessness, and as a result of the unseaworthiness of the vessel.”

Read the filing below:

Meantime, efforts to free the Dali from beneath the wreckage of the bridge continue, Coast Guard and NTSB investigations into the cause of the accident remain ongoing and access to the Port of Baltimore remains limited to the three temporary access channels that have now been opened.