The owner-operator duo of the Dali cargo vessel that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge last March are suing the ship’s builder, accusing the company of negligence in designing and manufacturing a critical switchboard on the ship.
Owner Grace Ocean Private Limited and operator Synergy Marine Private Limited filed the lawsuit on June 31 against Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
The switchboard lost power on the vessel’s voyage out of the Port of Baltimore, ultimately resulting in two power outages at 1:25 a.m. and 1:27 a.m., with the initial outage causing the ship’s engine service to shut down. The crew did not have enough time to restart the engine to alter the ship’s course and speed to avoid the bridge.
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The Maersk-chartered Dali, which could carry 9,962 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), hit one of the bridge’s support pillars, causing the four-lane, 1.6-mile bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River. Six construction workers died because of the accident.
That incident had effectively closed off traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore for more than two months, forcing vessels to reroute instead to other East Coast ports including the Ports of New York & New Jersey, the Port of Virginia and the Port of Philadelphia.
In the suit, the plaintiffs claimed HHI defectively designed and manufactured the switchboard in such a manner that wiring connections were not secure, could not be verified as secure, and could lose connection during normal operation.
Additionally, they said the signal wire was not designed to remain securely connected to the terminal block, noting that the design defect caused the switchboard and the vessel to be “unreasonably dangerous and in a defective condition.”
The defective design and construction of the switchboard led to the power outage causing the crash, the lawsuit read.
Both plaintiffs also accused the South Korean shipbuilder of breaching implied warranties by selling them the boat under the premise that it would “be fit for the ordinary purposes for which containerships are used, and be safe, seaworthy, and otherwise merchantable.”
HHI was or should have been aware of the risks associated with loose wires in the switchboard, including the potential for a power outage, the suit said. The plaintiffs claim the company materially withheld its knowledge of the potential for loose wires in the switchboard.
The Singaporean owner-operator duo sustained “significant” damages because of the incident, including physical damage to the Dali and damaging to the companies’ reputation.
Both Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine Private have been on the opposite end of lawsuits since the Key Bridge incident on March 26, 2024.
Last October, both companies agreed to pay a combined $102 million in civil penalties to cover the costs of responding to its collapse.
In that lawsuit, the Department of Justice alleged both companies did not take the necessary precautions to maintain a safe voyage despite there being excessive vibrations that could cause a power outage ahead of time. The DOJ had also accused the companies of sending an ill-prepared crew on “an abjectly unseaworthy vessel” to begin course.
That payment covered the federal response of clearing the wreckage and debris from the channel, but not from the reconstruction of the bridge, which is anticipated to be rebuilt by fall 2028.
The State of Maryland, which built, owned and operated the bridge, is in charge of reconstruction efforts. Those costs are expected to be between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion.
The state filed its own complaint against Singaporean shipping companies in October, suing the firms for damages related to the bridge’s collapse, lost toll revenues, emergency response costs, “wear and tear” on infrastructure and more.
Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott and the city’s council filed the first major lawsuit against the duo a month after the accident took place, alleging criminal negligence.
The families of multiple victims of the bridge’s collapse, as well as local businesses and insurance companies, have also filed claims against Grace Ocean and Synergy. These suits have since been consolidated with the city’s lawsuit into one extensive liability case.
Even dockworkers at the Port of Baltimore filed litigation. Three local branches of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) filed a class-action lawsuit against the businesses, with the union members saying they should be compensated for wages lost after the disaster forced the port to close.
In its preliminary report last year, the National Transportation Safety Board said in the Dali experienced electrical blackouts about 10 hours before leaving the Port of Baltimore, as well as the period before it slammed into the bridge.
