In October 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement with the shipowners and operators of the 984-foot container ship Dali for costs sustained responding to the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the Singaporean corporations that owned and operated Dali, agreed to pay $103,078,056 in civil damages under the Rivers and Harbors Act, Oil Pollution Act and general maritime law.
Funds from the settlement will go to the U.S. Treasury and to the budgets of several federal agencies directly affected by Dali’s allision with the bridge, or agencies involved in the response in late March 2024. The settlement is separate from litigation/compensation for the Francis Scott Key Bridge itself.
“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,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The prompt resolution of this matter also avoids the expense associated with litigating this complex case for potentially years.”
Grace Ocean also made a $97,294 payment to the Coast Guard National Pollution Funds Center in late 2024 for costs incurred to abate the threat of oil pollution stemming from Dali’s allision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which killed six people.
The DOJ said the $103 million settlement does not include any damages for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. “The State of Maryland built, owned, maintained and operated the bridge, and attorneys on the state’s behalf filed their own claim for those damages,” a Justice Department press release said. “Funds recovered by the State of Maryland for reconstruction of the bridge will be used to reduce the project costs paid for by federal tax dollars.”
A statement by the companies said that “the settlement strictly covers costs related to clearing the channel, which we would have been responsible for in any case, and is not indicative of any liability, which we expressly reject for the incident that led to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge … Grace Ocean and Synergy are prepared to vigorously defend themselves in the limitation of liability proceedings pending before the Federal Court in Baltimore and to establish that they were not responsible for the incident.”