Federal lawmakers are introducing legislation that could make the owners of the Dali, the ship that crashed into the Key Bridge, liable for up to $854 million in damages.
Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) want to change an 1851 maritime law that caps ship owner responsibility for accidents at about $44 million.
The Justice for Victims of Foreign Vessel Accidents Act would hold owners of foreign-flagged vessels accountable for up to ten times the value of the ship and its cargo after an accident.
“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 statement. “Access to America’s ports and our consumers is a privilege, not a right. If the foreign owners of the Dali want to keep that privilege, they can break out their checkbooks, call their insurance company, and pay their fair share of the bridge replacement costs and compensation to the families of the six workers who died tragically that day.”
The Key Bridge replacement is expected to cost between $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.
The agency is currently looking for designers for the new bridge and has a goal of finishing the bridge by fall of 2028.
Meanwhile, the city of Baltimore is suing Grace Ocean Private, the owner of the Dali, for damages.
The city is asking the court to throw out the maritime liability cap because of negligence on the part of the company.
The city says it is due payment for the replacement of the bridge, the costs of the obstruction to the river, costs for the loss of tax revenue, funds for the cleanup and money for the nuisance suffered by the residents of Baltimore.
“The Port of Baltimore was no stranger to large freighters like the Dali,” the lawyers representing Baltimore wrote in the filing. “For more than four decades, cargo ships made thousands of trips every year under the Key Bridge without incident. There was nothing about March 26, 2024 that should have changed that. But Petitioners, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd saw fit to put a clearly unseaworthy vessel into the water.”