The company that owns the ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge may have shown some of the defense tactics it is likely to use in a court document hammering out the details for trial scheduling.
Attorneys for Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Management Group, the companies that own and manage the Dali, mentioned strategic details in their plea to delay the trial until January 2027.
“Are they showing a little bit of their cards? Yes,” said. Michael Karcher, a law professor at the University of Miami, and maritime lawyer at Karcher, Canning & Karcher.
One of the main defenses the companies will likely rely on to limit what they have to payout in damages is the concept of proprietary interest.
A court case that lives in obscurity for those outside of the legal maritime realm sets precedent to limit what ship owners are responsible for paying for in accidents like the Key Bridge.
“The case is Robbins Dry Dock vs. Flint, in which it basically says that unless you have a proprietary interest in the property that was damaged, you don't get damages,” Karcher said. “For those people who don't actually own the bridge or the gas lines underneath, some of those economic claims are still going to be a legal fight as to whether the various other claimants can't even bring these claims.”
Grace Ocean and Synergy are being sued by the city, state, businesses, workers and families that were impacted by the allusion. Many of the claims are for things like loss of business and taxes, economic impact and other damages that are not directly related to owned interests.
“I think you're going to start seeing the legal fight coming up as to whether they actually can bring those claims or not,” Karcher said. “The state has a claim for fees or tolls going over the bridge, but people on the port who were shut down for a while, they're going to have a much tougher fight.”
The court documents also revealed that Grace Ocean and Synergy are likely to challenge Maryland’s stewardship of the bridge; that the state did not properly protect it.
“First is the question of comparative fault on the part of the state of Maryland and its agencies in failing to take proper steps to protect the bridge from vessel strikes notwithstanding longstanding knowledge that the bridge was not designed to withstand significant vessel contact, was inadequately protected from contact by vessels, and was poorly maintained such that the bridge was particularly vulnerable to catastrophic failure in the event of such a strike,” the lawyers wrote.
The attorneys mention failures by the state to enhance the safety of the bridge.
Finally, it’s likely that the companies may try and pin some of the blame on the businesses that built the Dali.
The attorneys mentioned that the ship lost power because of a loose wire and that could be the fault of a third party.
Last Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department, Grace Ocean and Synergy came to a settlement agreement for $102 million.
The settlement is only about $1 million less than what the Justice Department originally asked from the companies.
“This is a tremendous outcome that fully compensates the United States for the costs it incurred in responding to this disaster and holds the owner and operator of the DALI accountable,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement. “The prompt resolution of this matter also avoids the expense associated with litigating this complex case for potentially years.”
